Revenge
by Little Miss Jigsaw
Summary: Ada got off the island, now she's working with STARS, helping them go after Wesker... But there is more to what's going on, and her reason for helping them, than she is telling them. The reason is revenge... Ada has some dark secrets about her past. R&R!
1. Trust Worthy

Prologue: End of the mission

Ada stared blankly out of the window as the chopper flew away from the island. It wasn't long before she heard the explosion, signaling the destruction of the island. She breathed a sigh of relief at the sound...In a way, it signaled the end of one long nightmare.

Of course, she had gotten herself into it. .She had accepted the mission in the first place. But it was all part of the plan...Things were falling into place already. The case containing the plagas was on her lap...Yet something was still bothering her about the mission..more than one thing, really...Leon for one, though she was fairly sure he'd gotten out...He was resourceful. The other was Krauser...if he had survived the first time he'd fought with someone...Could he have survived through the fight with her?

It was certainly a possibility...One that she hoped would turn out to be nothing more than her own paranoia...The prospect of Krauser being alive wasn't a good one...Especially since he could hold a grudge for quite awhile...But if he did show up, she could easily have him disposed of. That was a plus to being of a high rank...you could have others do your dirty work.

Then there was Wesker...Pretending to work with him had been interesting to say the least...Frustrating at times as well. Her main concern would be what he would do when he realized that he didn't have the plagas, but rather a sample of one of the newer viruses created by the Organization...Which one, she didn't know, but knowing Wesker, it would already be part of his collection. She didn't want him losing it just yet...That would really screw things up...So maybe she could play both sides for a bit...

It could mean everything would be ruined..but she would have to risk it...She couldn't have Wesker getting out of hand..He was still an important part in her plans. So, what to do? Play the double agent, and get him a sample of the plagas? Or continue as she had, pulling the puppet strings from behind the scenes? Both ideas were tempting, and both had equal chance of success, and failure...So, which was more her style?

A grin crept to her lips as she made up her mind. The double agent sounded fun...But an even better idea was a triple agent...She could have Wesker so busy dealing with the third party that all she'd have to was make sure the organaization stayed in the dark about it all until her plans fell into place.

This in mind she turned away from the window and went over things in her head..now to find the STARS members...she had information that she was sure they were just dying to know.

_Chapter 1: Trust Worthy?_

_C_hris couldn't believe what he was hearing. The woman in front of him claimed to know where Wesker was, and what he was planning. The fact that she knew of Wesker was odd enough, even stranger that she knew of the viruses. but the strangest was that she wanted to help him...Or at least to help him find Wesker. The problem was: Could she be trusted? That was always the question when dealing with someone who knew about Wesker. Because it could easily be a trap set up by Wesker...

"Okay, Miss...?" he said, unable to remember her name.

"Amy Wells," The woman said, brushing her short black hair away from her eyes. There was nothing to suggest that she was lying. Though he wasn't convinced that was her real name. Oh well..Time to figure that out later...For now he needed the info on Wesker, be it true or false.

"What is it that you know about Albert Wesker?"

"Hmm, where to begin." She replied, smirking, "He worked with the STARS in 1998, as Captain. After the incident in Raccoon city he was presumed dead. You found that to be wrong I believe. He had a hand in what went on in spain a few months ago, and he is now currently part of an Organization, comprised of old Umbrella staff members." She paused for moment, watching his shocked expression with amusement, "Is that sufficient?"

Chris nodded. She was certainly talking about the same Wesker... "So Miss Wells...Why exactly do you want me to know the information you claim to have, and how do you know about Wesker?"

"That," She said, "Is a long story that we'll skip for now. However, I know about Wesker because I work with him." She smiled wickedly as Chris's features changed from relaxed to furious in a matter of seconds.

"What?" She asked innocently, "You going to hold that against me? You yourself worked for, or rather, under him."

Chris stared at her for a moment, "So who's to say this isn't a trap? Hmm? A way to get me to a place where you could easily kill me?"

Her lips curved into an almost wolfish smile, "Well you'll just have to watch your back, won't you?"

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"So let me get this straight," Claire said as she watched her brother gathering things, mostly guns, "She claims to know where Wesker is AND that she works for him? Either she's lying or it's a trap, Chris."

Chris ignored her and continued going about grabbing things here and there.

"Are you even listening to me?" When she still got nothing but silence as an answer, she sighed, "You always were blind when it came to a pretty woman."

That got his attention, "Look Claire...This is the first clue I've gotten to where Wesker might be. Now, to ease your worrying a bit, Jill is coming with me, and one of your old aquaintences, Leon. They should be here soon."

"What do you mean 'they're going with you'? I'm coming to."

Chris shook his head, "No. And don't argue. I don't have time to argue. We're supposed to meet that woman in half an hour. And She said she wasn't going to wait around if we were late."

There was a knock at the front door. Claire, glaring at her brother, went to open it. As she had expected, it was Leon and Jill. "Come right in." She said with a sarcastic tone in her voice, "Chris is almost ready to go to the asylum."

Jill gave her a small smile, "You really think he's that sane? I always thought he should be put out of his misery for being so crazy."

Leon chuckled quietly at them before saying "Hey Claire. Long time no see."

And indeed it had been a long time. Months, in fact. Claire smiled at him and moved out of the way so they could enter the house. Chris seemed oblivious to the fact that anyone had arrived and was still rushing about, making sure he had everything. Jill leaned against the wall, watching him,

"Having fun, Sugar?" She said, smiling. knowing that "sugar" would get his attention.

He turned to face her, "Yeah." He replied, "Loads." He set the gun he had in his hand down and went over to her, "How've you been?"

She smirked at him, "How do you think? You never call, never write, and then when you finally do, it's to tell me that you need my help with Wesker..."

Chris winced as she spoke, but didn't reply, "And you Leon? how're you?"

"Alot better than I will be when we get back...The government doesn't exactly take kindly to people just leaving when they feel like it..but, hey, anything for a friend." Leon replied, leaning against the wall.

Claire stood back and glared at them all, "So you're not going to try and stop him? Are you guys insane?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Leon said, grinning at her.

"Not funny Leon." She snapped, "I can't believe you're going to help him with this! If anything you should be trying to talk sense into him!"

"Claire," Jill sighed, "I tried that a long time ago..doesn't work...You of all people should know that. Besides...Each one of us has a bone to pick with Wesker...Or at least Chris and I do...We all have reason to want to go."

"Then why can't I come along?" Said Claire, throwing evil looks at her older brother, "I have just as much reason as any of you."

"We already discussed that Claire.." Chris said with a slightly impaitient tone in his voice.

"No we didn't." She replied, "I suggested it, you said no...that's not a discussion."

"Well when I said no, I meant it. you are not coming."

Leon and Jill traded amused glances...It was typical of the siblings to bicker like this.

"God damn it, Chris!" Claire finally shouted, "I don't give a fuck if it's to dangerous or not! I am going, and you are not going to stop me!" Glaring defiantly at her brother, Claire started gathering her things.

Chris watched her, shoulders sagging as he sighed.

Jill laughed at him, "Oh come on, don't tell me you thought you could actually leave her behind?"

"I had hopes." said Chris.

"Looks like she squashed 'em good," Leon said, chuckling, "Besides, she can hold her own...She lived through Raccoon didn't she?"

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Ada paced back and forth. The STARS weren't late, but she was bored. She thought she'd pulled off the first part of her plan rather well. The disguise of 'Amy Wells' had served it's purpose well enough...If Wesker managed to capture any of them..They wouldn't have any other name to give him. And he wouldn't know who they were talking about...and by time he figured it out, it would be to late for him to stop her. She grinned at this prospect, watching for any sign of the STARS.

Then she saw them, approaching in a blue pickup...And her hopes of continuing to use her fake name vanished when she saw one of the people sitting in the back...Leon...Of all the times to run into him. She was glad to see that he was safe, yes..but this would put both their lives in danger...

The truck pulled to a stop in front of her and the occupants clambered out..Leon had yet to notice her.

"Finally." she said.." and I thought there were only going to be three of you." As she had expected, Leon froze at the sound of her voice. But he didn't turn to face her.

"Chris" he said, "What did you say our guide's name was again."

"Amy Wells.." said the other man, looking puzzled, "why?"

Leon laughed, dropped the box he had been holding, and turned to face her, "I should have known. Working for Wesker, taking us to him...the intials A.W...So obvious...But as always, I didn't quite catch it. Nice to see you again, by the way."

"Did I miss something?" said one of the women, Jill, looking confused.

The Redfields simply looked back and forth between Leon and Ada, identical looks of utter puzzlement on their faces.

"Hello again, Handsome." Ada replied, trying to sound playful, but failing. Then taking on a serious tone she said "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help."

"Not anymore...You're not going."

"What!?"

Claire turned to Chris.."didn't you and I have this conversation not 20 minutes ago?"

Chris nodded at her, and stepped towards the two who were about to start arguing. "okay, would one of you please tell me what the hell is going on?"

Both of them sighed. _May as well. _Leon thought, as Ada was thinking: _if he lives through this, I'll kill him..just for being so damn stubborn._

"You want the truth?" Ada asked, "Fine. My name is Ada Wong, not Amy. Yes I work for Wesker...I know Leon because of past missions...Happy?"

There was silence for a moment as they all thought. Ada glanced from each one to another, her eyes lingering on Leon, and vice versa. She shook her head. She had to keep things going smoothly, which meant she had to be the cold hard professional...To bad that wasn't working out so well at the moment.

_so what else has she lied about? _Claire thought, watching the woman who claimed to be called 'Ada'...Leon had mentioned her...But very rarely, the few times they had seen each other after Raccoon...It was hard to get him to talk about that at all, but Ada even more so...And now she had shown up...Claire couldn't help but feel slightly jealous..Ada had been enough of a barrier to get past when presumed dead..alive was even worse..._but then...she's been gone for all this time..._the thought cheered her up for a moment, then she remembered something, _He wasn't that surprised to see her...he knew she was alive. He's seen her recently..._

"Are you going to come along or not?" Ada asked after awhile, "If so, we have to be going...now."

Chris sighed, and said, "How do we know you're not lying?"

"You didn't before,yet you were still going to trust me." Ada said with a smirk.

"She's got you there." Said Leon, "I, for one, still intend to go...You guys gonna come with me?" Hearing this made up Claire's mind; she was going. "Count me in" she said. Jill nodded in agreement.

Seeing and hearing everyone's willingness to go, Chris said, "fine. But I'll be keeping a close eye on you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

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Three hours later, they were all on a small plane, where it was going, Ada wouldn't say, and she dodged the question every time it was asked. Jill found herself wondering about the woman, and her history with Leon, but didn't ask about it. Both of them had been amazingly elusive on the subject when Claire had asked, and Jill doubted she'd get any better answers. She watched clouds go by as she wondered what they'd find in Wesker's newest hideout, and she wondered what had happened to Rebecca. the youngest of her friends had disappeared a few months ago, without saying anything..not in person anyway. She had sent Jill and Chris each a letter saying something about knowing where someone was, that she had to get to him. They doubted she had meant Wesker, if she had, she would have asked for their help. but not once had she said the name of the person she had located. That was the last they'd heard from her, and Jill wondered if she was safe.

They had tried searching for her of course, but her apartment had been left as it always had been. nothing was gone, except for a few items of clothing. The rest was the same. They had asked any of her friends in the bulding if they knew where she'd gone, not one of them had any clue. She glanced at Ada, who was sitting near the front of the plane, staring absently out her window. She had a sad, far away look in her eyes, as though she was remembering something she preferred not to. Turning away from Ada, Jill caught Chris's gaze. No words were needed between then to know what the other was thinking. There was more to all of this than Ada was telling them, and if they didn't find out, they could very well end up dead. Claire was remaining amazingly silent. It was clear that she didn't like their host, nor did she like the fact that Leon knew her, and was on speaking terms with her. She had barely said more than ten words to Ada since they borded the plane, and hadn't said a single word to Leon. Not that Leon listened to anything anything anyone said anyway. He, like Ada, was looking absently out the window, lost in his thoughts. No one bothered to try and get his attention.

As if Claire had heard Jill's earlier thoughts, she suddenly said, "I wonder if Rebecca's okay..."

No one answered, not that Claire had expected them to. They all remained silent for the remainder of the trip, which lasted another 4 hours. All but Ada and Claire were asleep when the flight ended. "Where are we?" Claire asked, as the plane got lower and lower.

"This is one of the many Umbrella bases." Ada replied, "But since no one is here, it's relativeley safe. If you avoid the creatures...see, they're why no one is here. Umbrella learned a while ago it's smarter to make sure your scientists and experiments are separate until you need to use them for something."

She leaned over and shook Leon awake, while Claire did the same with Chris and Jill.

"Though we'll have to keep a close eye out..You never know when they'll decide they need a creature."

The plane touched the ground, and Ada thanked the pilot, then got off, beckoning for the group to follow, while she grinned in a rather evil way. Suggesting that there was more about this place than she was telling them.


	2. The Umbrella Base

Forgot this in the fist chap: this is one of my earlier fics, so be nice... PLEASE PLEASE Review!

_Chapter Two: The Umbrella Base_

_T_he place was large, drab, and silent. When asked why, Ada explained that the experiments were kept under ground. Which they were all relieved about. The cold cement building was creepy enough in the daylight, but as darkness descended, and the air turned cold, it got noticeably creepier. The lighting was poor, and what little light there was made shadows stretch and look deformed. The emptiness, and silence made their imaginations run wild, making up noises where there were none. All of them were jumping at shadows.

Ada was amused by it. They had all gone through worse than spending the night in a empty building and here they were, all jittery. But in a way it made sense...just the knowledge that there were creatures beneath their feet made it worse. In the morning she would find out which base Wesker was currently at, since he liked to move around alot, that way she would know how much time they had before he returned to the main base, in Europe. She had brought them here first because she had over heard Wesker and Spencer talking about getting rid of them..And they knew where the STARS and any of their friends lived...And how to lure them out of hiding...They had done that with the Chambers girl. Though Wesker had wanted her kept alive for some reason. No one, not even Spencer,had argued.

And, this place was relatively safe from any Umbrella employees...She had the security monitors, so if anyone showed up, they could easily hide before that somebody saw them.

They were on the second floor now, as that was where the dormitories were, when the place has still been used for housing employees. Ada sat by one of the windows, the moonlight making her pale skin appear silver. She was the only one who had been unable to sleep..Funny really, since it was them that had been jumpy. But she didn't sleep much. She never had. Nightmares of her past often haunted her, and it made things worse than when she didn't sleep at all.

Movement behind her startled her. She turned to see what it was, and breathed a sigh of relief to see that it was just Leon. "Can't sleep?"

"How am I supposed to?"

"They didn't seem to have any trouble."

"Touche." There was a moment of silence before he blurted, "Why are you helping us,Ada?"

She didn't answer. She just turned her face back towards the window, her expression immpossible to read.

"Ada?"

"That's a story for another time," She finally said, not looking at him, "Besides, we both really need to get some sleep...I'll be across the hall." With that she got up and went past him and out the door. He heard another door open and close right across from where they were. Sighing, he decided he may as well try to sleep.

The next morning, Claire was the first one awake. She sat in silence for a good 15 minutes before the others finally stirred and woke up. Ada stepped silently into the room.

"Finally, you're awake. We have to hurry and prepare. Wesker is in on of the bases in Texas, and he's helping with the research there, so we have at least a couple of days before he returns to the main base. And you have to be at that base before he gets there, other wise you won't stand a chance of getting in."

All groaning at having to move around and be thinking so early, they set out to prepare.

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Albert Wesker sat at his desk, thinking. Ada was up to something, as she always was. But this time he didn't know what. The woman was always causing trouble, being defiant, disobeying orders, ect. But most of the time he knew what she was up to when she planned on causing trouble...This time he had not a clue. She had been very curious as to where his current location was...He had lied to her, of course, and given her false information. Trouble was brewing..He knew it, Spencer knew it, and Ada was part of it...

Not that Spencer's opinion really mattered. The old man's time was almost up...Wesker had already planned on disposing of him, but when he had ordered Ada to give him a virus instead of the Plagas, he had shortened his life span...but that could wait..Spencer wasn't an immediate threat to his plans, so for now, he could be kept alive. But not for much longer. Right now Wesker's top priority was Miss Chambers. She had been in the lab for 3 months now, and they still couldn't get a virus to take hold on her. Her body had cancelled them all out..she was becoming the next Sherry Birkin. But they had managed to beat Sherry eventually. And they would do the same with Rebecca. in the end, Sherry's downfall had been her own blood.

It hadn't been hard to create a new virus with Shery's G-virus tainted blood..And while the g-virus had cancelled out the t-virus, and even the T-veronica, it couldn't cancell its self out. Though the effect had been to much for the child, and it had slowly killed her. But he had learned a lot from her..Mainly how to perfect the virus created from her blood. The S-virus. Named so in her memory, he remembered with a crooked grin.

Rebecca was due to be injected with the S-virus soon. That day in fact. And he was going to enjoy watching the effects. Unlike the G-virus, and the T-veronica, it didn't have major effect right away. It was like the T-virus, and depending on how much the person's body resisted it, full effects might not show from a week to two weeks later. But not one subject yet had managed to cancel it out..not even poor little Sherry.

From down the hall he heard screaming and shouting. He sighed. They were acting up again. Chambers and Coen had been trying to escape ever since Coen had been captured. Most of the guards complained about them being kept in the same room, but Wesker enjoyed their little escape attempts. And it was entertaining to watch one or the other get scared when one was taken for experimentation. Like Chambers, Coen was resisting anything used on him.It was a pattern that was starting to annoy Wesker. But for some reason, Spencer found it immensely funny. He said it was a good thing they cancelled the viruses out..said it gave them an opprotunity to perfect the viruses.

_let the old man have his fun...he'll be gone soon enough._

With that in mind, he got up and went to deal with Chambers and Coen.

------------------------------------------------

The man sat in the shadows, watching, and waiting. He had been sitting there all night, watching Ada and the STARS. It was just a matter of time before he had his chance. And then he'd do what he'd said he would 4 months ago. He'd put them both in a body bag and send them to Wesker. Killing Ada was going to be quite satisfying...That bitch who'd stopped him from killing Leon, who had reported him dead. And then had tried to kill him herself. So many things he could list as a reason for killling her, but he didn't really need a reason to enjoy killing someone...He never had.

He changed positions, the sunlight briefly glinting off of his blade-arm. Killing Leon would be fun, as well. He supported a scar across his chest from an encounter with Leon...And then there was the still fresh memory of the fact that Leon had over powered him...But not this time, oh no, not this time. He chuckled to himself as he looked at the vial of red liquid he held in his hand. The scientist who'd given it to him was dead now, so that Umbrella would never know it was missing.

Jack Krauser laughed again as he peeled the lable reading "S" off of the vial, and continued to wait for his chance to strike.

-------------------------------------------

Once again they were on the plane, this time heading for Europe, where the main base was located. They had been in the air for several hours, all trying not to drift off to sleep, out of boredom, mostly. Claire decided to use the time as an advantage to talk to Leon.

"Hiya," she said, sitting next to him.

"Hi," he replied blandly, not looking at her.

"Something bothering you?"

"No...I just wish I could get something more than a witty comment or silence out of her."

Claire knew he was talking about Ada. Which annoyed her. "Why do you even try? From what I've seen, that's all she can do. Make witty comments."

Leon looked at her for a moment, his face blank then turned away again, "You don't know her like I do..."

"And what do you know about her?" Claire asked, her annoyance showing, "Hmm?"

Leon didn't answer her, and she could feel her jealousy and anger getting worse. She resisted the urge to yell at him right then exactly what she thought of Ada, and him believing her to be comepletely trust worthy... Now was not the time for fighting.

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A sharp jump in the plane's smooth flight woke Chris from his nap, "What the hell?"

Ada was shouting at the pilot, while the pilot tried desperatley to fix what was wrong. Chris could tell the poor man wasn't doing well with someone yelling at him. Another jolt. A thud in front of him brought Chris's attention to the fact that Jill had fallen in front of him.

"You okay?" he asked, pulling her up.

"Yeah," she replied, "Any idea what's going on?"

Chris shook his head and was about to say no, when Ada suddenly yelled, "What do you mean 'nothing you can do'?! We're in the air! There has to be something!"

The pilot was shaking his head as fast as he could, yammering on with half finished sentences about a computer malfunction. Ada turned to the other passengers, "Everybody brace yourself. We're in for a bumpy ride."

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Chris could heard muffled voices, but he couldn't quite see anything. As the voices became clear enough that he could identify them, his vision slowly came back. At first all he saw was a green and blue blur, but as the image became sharper, he realized he was seeing the sky and trees. Lots of trees.

"Hey he's awake!" Chris heard his sister's voice say.

"It's about time." Ada.

Chris sat up, his head pounding. In front of him was Claire, sporting a gash aross her cheek, and a palm-sized bruise on her arm. Behind her, Chris could see the ruined remains of the plane they had been in, and he didn't know if it was his imagination or not, but he thought he saw an arm among the wreckage, the pilot. he turned his head, there were the other three. Jill, Ada and Leon, all safe. Bruised and bloody, but safe. The surrounding area was thick with trees, some of the splintered, most likely due to the plane.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"About 5 miles from our destination," was the flat reply from Ada, "I don't understand what happened...The pilot started yammering about some sort of problem, then we started losing speed...Then he finally got around to the fact that there was a computer malfunction...," she paused and sighed, "I guess we're walking from here...But we'll have to be careful. This whole area is fenced in and just to discourage anyone from trying to get to the base this way, they have some of their nasty little creatures running loose,"

All of them groaned at this prospect, and Chris got to his feet, trying to will the pain in his head away. "I guess we better get moving then."

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Ada slapped at a fly that landed on her. She hated bugs of any kind, but the ones here were especially dangerous. There was a small chance that they had fed off of something infected with one of the viruses, and it wouldn't weild pretty results were she or the others bitten. They had been walking for an hour or so through trees and underbrush. Ada was sure that they were heading in the right direction, just as long as they didn't get turned around, and end up going back the way they'd come. It was a long while before she saw the secondary fence that separated the creatures from the lab. At some points through the trees she could see the building. _Time to leave this jolly little band I think..._

As they started speeding up to hurry towards the fence, Ada slowed down, and quietly slipped off into the shadows. She was heading for the front entrance of the lab. Before she'd gotten to far, she heard shouts, probably them looking for her. Or so she told herself until she heard more shouts, accompanied by a loud inhuman scream..._Silencers._ She thought bitterly. The silencers were nasty creatures that did just what their name suggested. They quickly and efficiently silenced their prey. They themsleves would move through any terrain with ease, without a sound, until they saw their food, then they would scream, and kill whatever they had seen. Normally though, they had fun first, spitting a sticky fluid at their prey's face, making sure there was no noise to disturb them. Then they would slowly pull their victims apart, one piece at a time. They were intelligent creatures, and knew what would kill something and what wouldn't.

Ada was about to turn back and help them when she sudenly got the feeling that soemthing was watching her. But when she listened, she heard nothing but the sounds of the fight going on a ways away. _Great..another one_... She was right, for a few seconds later, she heard that eair peircing shriek. It came from her left, so that was the direction she ran in, hoping to confuse the creature, or at least buy her some time. She felt something wet hit her arm, and heard it splatter on the ground. It had tried to spit it's sticky saliva at her and had missed. When in a rush, the creatures actually made a lot of niose, so Ada knew where it was at all times. She saw the gate ahead, and hoped she had enough time to enter the pass code before the silencer caught up to her. She reached the gate and could hear the creature crashing through the trees behind her. Quickly as she could, though not very calmly, which meant she messed up more than once, Ada punched in the pass code on the lock next to the gate. Finally there was a beep signaling that it was unlocked.

She threw the gate open the shut it as fast as she could. She barely got it closed before the cat-like form slammed into it, screaming. The silencer glared at her with it's malicious gold eyes, growling, it's pointed ears pressed against its head. What should have been mottled grey and white fur was instead scales. While they travelled on four legs, their front feet could easily be used as hands. Each foot was equipped with razor sharp claws as long as her thumb. It twiched it's stinger-tipped tail back and forth in agitation, knowing it couldn't get to her. It dropped back onto all four feet and started to head back into the trees. Then, as if to get back at her for not staying put and becoming dinner, it turned on a dime and spit at her again. This time it hit her, though in the shoulder.

Making a face, Ada wiped the saliva off of herself, shouted a few profanities at the creature, and listened for any sounds of the STARS. She heard a metallic clanging some ways away to her right, and turned, they were climbing over the fence. Claire dropped to the ground from the top, saying in a disgusted voice, "The friggin thing spit on me!" she was wiping the spit off of her shirt, with a look of utter disgust on her face,

"Why is it that every creature we meet either looks gross or does something gross?"

Ada heard Chris laughing at his sister as he dropped to the ground beside her. Once Jill and Leon were over, they began to look around, and Ada ducked behind a tree.

"Where'd Ada go?" she heard Leon ask.

"How should I know?" Jill replied, "She disappeared right before that thing attacked us..."

"I doesn't matter," that was Claire, of course, "We need to get into the building without being detected for now."

Hearing this, Ada grinned. _Good luck, kid. Without my help you're more likely to wind up as an experiment._ But she would help them...That had been the idea. But she wouldn't help them as they might have expected. She turned and silently ran for the front of the building..it would be hard to explain her torn clothes and battered appearance, but that wouldn't matter..soon enough Wesker would be to busy to bother with her. And then anything in her way would be gone. Her path would finally be clear.


	3. Paris

_Chapter Three: Paris_

_A_t first she couldn't see anything but the blinding light in front of her eyes, but when she turned her head, she could see the hunched form of a well-built man next to her. Billy.

"You okay?" he asked, noticing that she was awake.

"Yeah," Rebecca replied, "Where have they moved us now?" The last thing she remembered was being grabbed from behind and injected with some kind of sedative, and now she was in comepleteley different surroundings.

"From what I heard the guards talking about: Still in Europe, but for some reason they cleared out their main head quarters..."

"any id-"

Before Rebecca could finish, the door to the room they were in opened. Both Becky and Billy looked towards the door, expecting to see some random scientist with a needle, as always. But that wasn't what they saw. Instead, Wesker stood there, flanked by 2 of the guards. Normally, Rebecca would have made a rude comment, like she always did to the scientists, but the look on Wesker's face suggested that to make any comments would be unwise.

"Grab him." Wesker said, blandly, "I've got the girl."

The guards nodded, and stepped past Wesker into the room, and tried to hold Billy back as Wesker started for Rebecca. Another man entered the room, this one a scientist, carrying two syringes full of blood-red liquid. Wesker held Rebecca's arms tightly behind her back,

"Let's see you resist this one, Rebecca...Even Sherry wasn't able too," he muttered to her.

Holding her arms with one hand, he took one of the syringes from the scientist with the other. "You do him, I've got her."

Billy struggled against the two men that held him as the scientist approached him. He kicked at the man, catching him in the face, and kocking him back into Wesker and Rebecca.

"Idiots!" Wesker yelled, as he grabbed for Rebecca, who had managed to slip out of his grasp.

Billy broke free of the guards, and the pair hauled ass out of the room, and down the long white hallway, ramming into people as they went. They heard Wesker yelling for someone to catch them as they ran.

They were quite a ways away, when the guards caught them as they were rounding a corner. One of them slammed their fist into Billy's face and another caught Rebecca as she tried to skid to a halt and run the other way.

"Nice try." Wesker taunted, approaching from behind them, "But not quite good enough. Though you've managed to earn yourselves an extra day without being infected. It will be a while before two more doses are ready..though I must say, it would be interesting to see what dear Mr. Coen would do with his beloved Becky trying to kill him," he grinned wickedly, "So maybe we'll only need one.."

Billy, already worked up, threw a puch at Wesker. It caught Wesker off gaurd, and he was unable to block it. Billy's fist connected with the side of Wesker's head, sending the man's shades flying. The gaurds immediatly lept on Billy, holding him down.

Wesker calmly bent down and picked up his shades, laughing. "pitiful," he muttered.

"Um...Sir, should we maybe put 'em in separate cells this time?" the guard holding Becky wanted to know, "They've been nothing but trouble together..."

"No," Wesker replied, "They'll be even more trouble apart. and besides, what would you do without the entertainment?"

With that, Wesker turned and went off down the hall. Time to talk to Spencer.

-----------------------------------------

She didn't understand...What was going on? The inside of the base was empty. Deserted. Everything had been cleared out. Just when she'd thought every thing was going her way, too. Ada kicked the wall in frustration. Now she was going to have to find out where they'd moved to, and how to get there. And more importantly, how to get the STARS there...

"Oh look who it is," said a voice behind Ada, "the bitch who brought us here,"

Ada turned her head in the direction of the voice; Claire was the one who had spoken. The others were right behind her. Ada didn't reply to Claire, instead she calmly said "Well, it's about time. I was wondering if the Silencer had killed you,"

A hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her roughly around, as Leon said "Claire, don't!"

_No need to worry handsome._ Ada thought. She wrenched herself out of Claire's grip, and had her gun drawn before the girl could recover. "Listen, Kid. I don't have time for you to be mad at me, or jealous of me, okay?"

Before Claire could reply or Ada could reacte, Chris was next to them, his gun drawn, and pointed at Ada. "If you want to continue your existance, I suggest you lower the gun," he said.

"Would every one just calm down!?" Leon and Jill said together.

"She started it," Ada replied cooly, "But,as you wish," she holstered her 9mm, and crossed her arms.

Claire remained silent, glaring at the older woman.

"So why is no one here?" Jill wanted to know, "I thought this was the main base,"

"It was," Ada replied, "But they moved appearently...I don't know why they would have, unless they knew someone was coming, though I doubt you would be enough to scare them off,"

"So why did they leave?" both Redfields wanted to know.

"Likely because Spencer got tired of this place..He tires of many of these places...He prefers things like the mansion in the Arklays. The only question is, where did he decide to move too? There are a number of places to choose from,"

----------------------------------

Paris...Near Paris. That's what the computers said anyway. But they had seen earlier that computers could fuck up. So what to do? Trust the only files they had been able to recover from the computer and go to Paris? Or struggle about on their own and hope to find Umbrella's new location? Both could weild equally disasterous results... Though the Paris route would mean a higher chance of sucess...

"Okay guys," said Chris, "Time to decide where we're going, and who's going."

"I say we go to Paris," Ada said blandly, "not that my opinion matters... And I have to go. You need a guide, remember?"

"I'm going," was the reply from Leon.

"Me too," said Jill

"Okay...and we find a way to get Claire home." Chris said, hearing the other's replies.

Upon hearing this, Claire rounded on her brother, "Christopher Micheal Redfield! We've been through this already, I'm going!"

Chris heard his full name and didn't even bother trying to argue. It was truly sad when your full name became a sign that you had lost. "Fine. I guess we'd better get moving,"

---------------------------------

Jack arrived to find the building desserted. But they had been here...He had seen their plane go down, and there were no bodies there other than that of the pilot... Bood pooled around his feet, dripping off of his blade-arm. The cat-things in the forest had been child's play. A little disapointing, really. He had been hoping for a challenge. But then, he could feel the effects of the virus beginning to take hold. He was getting stronger by the hour, he even surprised himself. He did a quick yet thorough search of the rather small facility and confirmed what he'd already guessed, everything was gone. He slammed his normal arm into the cold cement walls, turning the area into dust.

Oh well, he would get them next time... First things first, find out where they had gone. Then the fun would begin. This in mind, he set out to located Ada and her friends, imagining the bloody deaths they were going to suffer...

---------------------------

Paris, or at least the outskirts of it. The computer had been right. For in the distance, Jill could see the building. It looked like an old mansion. _Umbrella and their mansions..._ It looked big too, at least twice s big as the Spencer mansion.

"Of course! How could I have been so stupid?!" Jill heard Ada say to herself, and she wondered what the woman meant, but didn't ask.

They were in an old house maybe 6 miles from the 'Lab', The sun was just about to rise. Jill wished she could watch it...It had been a long time since she'd actually had the time to enjoy the sunrise, but what Ada had suggested when they arrived was the right idea. Stay there until nightfall, and get what sleep they could until then.

"Okay," said Chris, "We need to figure out how we're going to get in, now, instead of waiting,"

"That's easy," said Ada, "I acutally know this place. This was the main base till about a year ago, when they moved to the base we were at...But I comepletely forgot about it, and it's location, until I saw it,"

"Okay, so how do we get in?" Claire wondered.

"Easy...The basement. There is one window into the basment, it should be unlocked. If not, after dark, there will be no one down there so you could break it. It's staying out of sight once you're in that's the problem. Though I'm sure yu can think of something,"

They talked for a while more about how to get in and get to Wesker, and finally decided it would be best to get to sleep.

------------------------------------

As she had the last time, Ada sat awake as the others slept...Only this time, the reason was different. She had given the STARS enough information to get in and find Wesker, that was the extent of the help they'd get for now. Just as soon as she was sure none of them were going to wake up, she would leave and get to the base. She would then start the chaos.

Just when she thought it might be safe to leave, someone sat next to her; Leon.

Neither of them said anything for a long while, they just sat there, every now and then, glancing at one another. Finally the silence was to much to bear, and Ada said,

"So, still can't sleep or are you awake for a reason?"

Leon laughed at her, "Actually, I thought I might be able to get some straight answers out of you now, but now I might have changed my mind..."

"You never know...depends on the questions you ask," Ada replied.

"Okay," he sighed, "How did you get out of Raccoon?"

This surprised Ada. She had expected the usual 'why are you helping us' question. "Wesker. He got me out."

"Is that why you work for him? Because he got you out?"

"Honey, I worked with Wesker long before that. Wesker and I...go way back." Leon heard the sadness in her voice as she said the last part, and he wondered why.

After a few morminutes he asked the question Ada had been expecting, "Tell me the truth, why are you helping us?"

"As I said before, that's a story for another time, and another place."

Leon sighed. At least she had answered a few of his questions..but her answers had left him with even more questions swimming around in his brain. And he doubted she'd answer them. He was about to get up and go back to sleep when she spoke again,

"I'm sorry," her voice was barely above a whisper. He froze, waiting to see if she would say anymore. When she didn't he couldn't help the disappointment he felt.

"Sorry for what?" She didn't answer him. She didn't even look at him. He placed a hand on her shoulder, "Sorry for what?"

Ada just shook her head, and remained silent. On impulse, Leon leaned forward, his lips meeting hers. This caught Ada off guard, but for a moment, nothing of what was going to happen later seemed important. All that mattered right then was them. However, reality reared it's ugly head when Leon broke the kiss, and Ada remembered exactly what she was supposed to be doing, and for the breifest moment, wished she didn't.

Leon cleared his throat akwardly after another moment of silence, "uh, right...Sorry 'bout that,"

This got a laugh from Ada, "No need to apologize, Handsome,"

He smiled at her, rose and left the room. Ada sat there for a moment, and decided it was time for her to leave, before she lost her nerve.

------------------------------------

The building loomed in front of her, dark and forbidding. She had never liked this house...She always felt that something was watching her when she was there...It was one of those places that you stepped into and instantly said it was haunted, for the hair on your neck would stand up , and chills would run down your spine.

The mansion in Raccoon forest had been creepy, yes, but she hadn't acually been afraid of it. Like the Spencer mansion, the basement levels were the labs, with the upper area of it being used for the employees. Spencer and Wesker had done nothing to try and rid the place of some of it's creepiness. Ada had the feeling that the old man liked the scary atmosphere. Another likeness it had to the original mansion; it was full of riddles and traps, and secrets. The kind of house Ada hated.

Sighing, she opened the front door. She hadn't needed to worry about guards, the 2 at the gates had been some of _her_ employees; Tim Green and Tyler Matheson. Upon opening the door, she saw the rest of her 'team'; short little Amber Davis, tall, mysterious Phyllis Ryan, blonde and goofy Mathew Booker, and the forever-flirting Justin Le. They seemed to be heading for the door as she opened it.

"Well look what the cat drug in," said Mat, "We were just on our way out to find you, boss said you'd been gone to long,"

Amber looked her up and down, "What the hell happened to you?" she asked Ada bluntly.

"Long story, right now I need a shower and clean clothes," was Ada's reply. She hadn't noticed how dirty she was, with bloodstains and dirt all over her, along with bruises and cuts. She walked past them, "I assume my rooms are where they always were?"

Justin nodded, "you got it, Dollface,"

Ada ignored him, Justin was always calling her cutesy names. As she headed for what had once, been, and now was again, her rooms, she heard Phyllis call out behind her,

"Wesker said he wanted to see you as soon as you returned."

Without turning around Ada said, "Well then, I guess I haven't returned yet,"


	4. Hell Breaks Loose

_Chapter Four: Hell Breaks Loose_

_A_da stood before him. She looked like she had been in a fight, but Wesker knew better. He was trying hard to keep his temper under control...His chat with Spencer had not gone well, the old fool was beyond the point of listening to any one. Wesker had tried to talk him into moving back to the old base, but Spencer wouldn't hear of it. He had always preferred this mansion to any of the real bases. The mansion was easier to keep hidden yes, mostly because of the fact that no one would suspect what it was, but it also wasn't equipped with the proper methods to keep any outbreak contained for more than a few days. And with some of the accidents they'd had recently, they needed to take all the precautions they could.

But that wasn't the matter at hand. The matter at hand was Ada, and where she had been. And more importantly, with whom.

"So," he said, "Where have you been?"

"Trying to figure out where you were," she replied, "My plane went down outside the old base...Had a run-in with the silencers,"

"Why did you leave in the first place?"

"Oh come now Albert, surely you don't think you're the only one in this place who can send me on a mission?"

"Where's Cody Jacobs?"

"Dead. Died when the plane went down," Ada replied. _Too bad really_ she thought _Cody was a good pilot..._

Wesker frowned at her, not convinced that that was all there was to it, but he knew when he wasn't going to get any straight answers out of her. "Very well, you are dismissed,"

As she turned to leave he spoke again, "Did you wonder why the base was cleared out?"

Without facing him she replied, "I assumed it was because Spencer was bored again,"

She left the room without another word. Wesker watched her go, smirking, appearently she knew Spencer almost as well as he did. Indeed, the old man had grown tired of the cold concrete walls of the last building. Wesker leaned back in his chair, sighing. Something would have to be done about the old man soon. At this thought, Wesker laughed at himself, he'd first thought that 18 years ago, and here he was, still working for Spencer, and still thinking that he'd be gone soon. _Oh well, I'll finally get around to it this time._

Amber was waiting outside the door with Mat. They were arguing about something, and continued to do so, until Mat spotted Ada. She assumed they had something to say.

"What is it? Make it quick, please,"

"Tyler says he's ready when you are," Amber replied solemly. Sometimes Ada wonderd if the girl had any sense of humor at all. Maybe only being 4 foot 11 inches made her that way.

"And Phyllis is too," said Mat.

"fine," Ada said, "You two continue your argument...You seemed to be having fun,"

"He'll be having fun till I beat him over the head with stick...or maybe a hammer..." said Amber, with a grin.

"You can't even reach my head, half-pint," Mat retorted.

Ada didn't stick around to listen to the rest. The two were always arguing over something, and while it provided great entertainment, she didn't have time for it. So Tyler and Phyllis had the team ready? Good. That just meant she could get things rolling even faster..._After_ she slept for a while.

----------------------------------------

Billy sat on one of the two small cots in the cell, hitting his head against the wall and muttering now and then. Someone might have looked at him and said he was crazy, but Rebecca knew better. With no way to entertain themselves, they put their time into figuring out how to get out of this place. So far they hadn't been very lucky. Since Wesker had tried to infect them with whatever that new virus had been, they had tried to escape again, and it had resulted in several broken fingers and ribs for each of them. Billy still had a black eye from the guarsds hitting him, and Rebecca sported a boot shaped bruise on her thigh from one of them kicking her.

Sighing, she sat next to Billy. Looking at her swollen, black and blue hands she wondered if maybe they would be better off just not bothering with escape. How long would it be before the guards stopped using fists and feet to restrain them? How long before they went to knives and even guns?

The guards would only put up with so much, as she had over heard the night before. She heard alot of things being in this cell. Most of them weren't very useful. She leaned back against the wall, wishing Billy would take a break from his constant muttering and planning, and thought of hos she wound up there. They had tricked her. They had known how to get her out in the open. She had gotten an e-mail that she had thought was from Billy saying that he needed help. She had gone, and hadn't even thought that it might be trap. And it had been. She had gotten caught. And soon after, Billy had been brought in. Appearently he had fallen for the same trick she had.

She couldn't take it any more. "Billy, cut it out,"

Billy looked at her and sighed, "Fine...but we need to get out of here,"

"Slamming your head against the wall and driving me insane is not going to help,"

He didn't say anything else in argument. Over the past months, both had gotten to know the other much better. And Rebecca found that when kept in close quarters for long, Billy got quiet and quick-tempered. Not that it did much good for her conversation skills and mood either. At least he didn't take his temper out on her, aside from occasional arguments. He reserved it for the guards and scientists. Both of them snapped to attention when they heard laughter outside.. There were two familiar voices; Carlson and Brooks, both of their voices were slurred. _Drinking on the job boys? Umbrella needs to keep a closer eye on who they hire._ They had also gotten to know the names of guards, and Rebecca could indentify them all by their voices.

At first it seemed they would walk right on passed, but they stopped outside the cell and unlocked the door. Brooks opened it, and Rebecca knew something bad was coming from the way they looked at her. Billy seemed to see this as well, for he rose, and cracked his knuckles, preparing for the fight he knew was coming

Normally, even two people would have had trouble with Billy, but the months without proper food and exercise had started to take their toll, and the men, despite being drunk, held him down and handcuffed him, Rebecca, who had trying to pull Brooks off of Billy, was now against the back wall of the cell, looking for an opprotunity to run. Carloson grabbed her as she tried to get past, and drug her from the cell on his own, and for the first time, Rebecca was actually trying to get _back_. She heard Billy shouting her name, and she struggled even harder to get away.

"You done caused too much trouble 'round here, girl," said Brooks in his southern drawl, as he caught up to Carlson, "You an' yer man. But we cain't have no fun with 'im like we can with you,"

They stopped abruptly and Rebecca saw a woman in tight blue jeans and a blood-red t-shirt in front of them. she brushed her short black hair away from her eyes and stared at them.

"Just where do you think you're going?" she said in a tone that suggested she knew exactly where they were going, "Especially with Rebecca? Hmm? Where's Billy?"

"We was just-" Brooks began, but Carlson cut him off.

"Zip it, Charles," he said, and shoved Rebecca towards the woman, "Coen's still back there,"

The woman's eyes glinted as she stopped Rebecca from falling, "Next time I find either of you doing someting like this again, OR that you've been drinking on the job, you'll find yourselves dead very quickly,"

She strode past them, pulling Rebecca with her.

"um...Thank you," Rebecca said. Employee of Umbrella or not, the woman had helped her. The woman didn't answer her.

When they got back to the cell, she let Rebecca go and spoke to Billy, who was trying to get to the keys that one of the men had dropped, "Hold still, and I'l get them off,"

She grabbed the keys and released Billy.

"Thanks," Billy said, appearently thinking the same thing Rebecca had.

"Don't thank me..." said the woman as she left the cell, and shut the door behind her, "I've only bought your little girlfriend an extra night of peace...I can't be every where,"

With that, she left them staring after her.

----------------------------------

Just as Ada had said, the window to the basement was unlocked. But they were debating wether or not to go in. Leon was all for it, though the others, mainly Claire, were wary of the idea. Jill was caught inbetween choices...They had a chance to take out Wesker, but Ada had been gone when they had awoken, and she was most likely here...she could have easily warned the guards where they'd be coming from.

She didn't bother listening to Leon and Chris. She knew they were arguing...The two had been at each other's throats all day. Instead she listened carefully for anyone approaching them. But someone appearently knew that she would be. She heard a "Hey!" From Claire, then felt something jab her thigh. She immediatly begian to feel dizzy, and her vision blurred, she heard three thuds next to her as she fell ,telling her the others had fallen victim to the darts as well. In her last concious moment, Jill saw feet in front of her face and a female voice say, "Nice shot, Tim,"

And the reply, "Why thank you, Phyllis...you know shooting isn't the _only_ thing I'm good at..."

--------------------------------

When Jill woke up, she found herself in a dark, damp room with concrete walls. The others were just waking up as well. Taking a closer look around Jill saw that there was door to her left, and a small portion of it was bars, allowing her to see that there was another cell across the hall. From the cell were voices, one familiar, the other was not.

"We have to get out of here!" said the stranger's voice.

"How Billy? What are we supposed to do?" had Jill been thinking clearly, she would have know the second she heard the voice that it was Rebecca, but since she wasn't, it took her a moment. When she did realize who it was, she almost couldn't believe it.

"Rebecca?!" she called, just as Chris said, "Where the fuck are we _now_?"

"Hmmm," Claire said to her brother, "It isn't hot, and it's real damp, so I'm guessing it's not hell, and that's good enough for me,"

"Jill?!" Rebecca called back, "Are you okay?"

Jill moved to get a better veiw and could see two faces between the bars on the cell door, one was Rebecca, the other was a man who appeared to be in his early 30s. "How did you get here?" Jill asked, glancing back at the other three, who were pushing themselves off of the floor.

"They tricked me, Billy too," said Rebecca, "they've been injecting us both with all kinds of stuff ever since,"

Hearing this, Jill bit her lip. Rebecca noticed this and spoke up quickly, "No need to worry...they frequently complained that none of the viruses would take hold...though they have a new one that they tried to use on us,"

Jill sighed in relief, "Any ideas on how we-"

She stopped speaking when suddenly the hall went pitch black. She could hear the others whispering back and forth, wondering what had happned_. What is it about the dark that makes you feel like you have to be quiet? _she asked herself.

There were shouts from above them, some of anger, others out of shock.

Something slammed into the cell door, and Rebecca jumped back, ramming into Billy. She waited for whatever it was to do it again, but instead she heard something, almost like cloth, being drug across the floor. She risked a peek out, and didn't see anything at first. Until something dropped down in front of the bars. The eyes of the creature glowed with an unnatural green light. The eyes were about all she could see in the darkeness, but the decaying scent that came from it, along with the flash of white teeth were more than enough to scare her. She let out a shriek and stumbled away from the door. The creature hissed at them, and turned and left, leaving Rebecca shaking and Billy's heart pounding.

---------------------------------------------

"Okay," said Ada, "Tim, Phyllis, you two make sure the power goes out at exactly 10 pm, got it?"

The pair nodded at her.

"Though what we'll do after the lights are out, Boss," said Tim, "is going to be alot more fun,"

Phyllis rolled her eyes, and Ada comepleteley ignored him. "Tyler, Justin, you two make sure all doors to the basement are shut and locked,"

"Aye aye." said Tyler, while Justin simply nodded.

"Amber, you're the smallest, you get to turn the Stalker loose. The doors will already be locked by then, so you'll have to use the air ducts to get out,"

"Sure, use me as the creature handler just because I'm the short one. Never mind that one of you might have an easier time _reaching_ the ducts,"

"Mat, you make sure that no one leaves their offices or rooms until the power's out,"

"And how the he-"

"Mat, don't start,"

The young man clamped his mouth shut and went to do as he'd been told. And the others set off to do their tasks as well. Ada watched them go, and hoped that nothing went wrong. if it did, it could mean they would all end up dead.

Ada went up to the second floor of the main hall, where she knew everyone would head to, and she would watch the chaos begin. Once they figured out that the Stalker was loose, they would panic. They wouldn't know that the basement was locked.

Of course, once everything was locked down, she would open the basement doors. And let the Stalker out. And maybe a few of it's cousins, the silencers... And from there, the more intelligent creatures would realize that there electronic defenses on their prisons were released, and they would escape as well. Raising hell was so much fun. One problem that she would have to deal with. The STARS. Getting them out of the basement would be no trouble once the Stalker was out of there. It would pay no attention to them if it could easily get to prey above. But how long would it take for every one to get to the main hall? How long would it take to get the lab locked down?

Suddenly, darkness descended on the building. "What do you know?" She muttered, "Tim didn't keep them from cutting the power on time..."

It was a few minutes before people started to show up. when they did, they all chattered, asking one another what was going on. Ada payed no attention to them. She was waiting for Amber. It wasn't long before she heard the clanking signaling Amber's return. The vent cover to her right was kicked out of it's place, and the short young woman dropped to the floor, looking rather dusty and irritated.

"Do you know how hard it is to climb 2 stories in the air ducts? Hmmm? Maybe I ought to throw you in there, let you see how hard it is."

Ada didn't reply to her, she was wating for the others to return. Tyler and Justin were first, then Phyllis and Tim. And finally Mat joined then, complaining about always having to do the drudge work. Justin hit him over the head lightly.

"Stop complaining," he said, "You might upset our luminous boss," he mock bowed at Ada.

As she always did, Ada ignored his foolishness. A long and inhuman scream from below told Ada that Amber had succeeded.

"Okay," she said, "Tyler, you go to the control room, lock this place down. They'll start trying to get out soon,"

"Got it," he replied, and left to do his job.

Ada headed for Wesker's office, intent on making it look as though she'd come to warn him. Her team followed behind, her, Tyler's task complete. She was reaching for the door knob when the door was wrenched open. Wesker stood there. Ada was surprised to see that his shades weren't on his face, but rather, in his hand. She could see the anger in his face, and knew there was no need to alert him, he already knew.

------------------------------------

Krauser watched the place from a distance, comtemplating what way to get in, when the whole mansion suddenly went dark. A few minutes later he heard a scream ring out through the night. It sounded similiar to the creatures he'd killed before, but louder, and it sounded bigger as well.

Still, it would be no match for him. Not with this new virus. His blade-arm glinted in the moon light. It dripped with fresh blood, as it often did, this time from the guard lying dead at his feet. The man hadn't known what had happened until he was in sliced in half.

Three more guards were dead along with him. The first one was the worst...Krauser'd had fun with him for a few minutes, after making sure there would be no sound of course. The other three he had killed quickly, not wanting to bother with causing pain first. There was a beep behind him, signaling the gate locking. Krauser wasn't surprised. The lab probably locked down if there was a power failure, in case of a creature escaping. Though he wondered what creatures would be here. Umbrella kept their experiments away from the main labs.

_only the comepleted ones_ he reminded himself _only the ones they don't need to work on anymore._ Which meant he'd have to be careful. He was stronger now, yes, but it would not be wise to overestimate his ability when he was outnumbered.

First things first, get rid of the people in the lab, then the creatures, then Ada and the STARS. Maybe he'd let Wesker go...Maybe. Depending on if he felt merciful when the time came. At this thought he laughed at himself. Him? Feel merciful? Wesker was as dead as every one else.

---------------------------

Wesker stood in front of Spencer. He looked pale in the dull emergency lights. Pale and sickly. Wesker didn't bother to try and stop the feeling of disgust that welled up at the sight of the man. He had worked for Spencer all these years, and had always thought the same thing: He needed to be removed.

"What is going on?" the old man inquired, though Wesker was sure he already knew.

"Power went out sir. The stalker escaped, and the building locked itself down."

"I trust that you will find out what and who caused this and take care of them, Albert?"

"Yes, sir," Wesker replied while thinking, _the one who caused it is right in front of me, you old bastard. I told you we should not have moved the base, but you didn't listen._

He left spencer's office, trying not to smash anything on his way out. The man's simple existence annoyed him. But time enough to deal with him once the stalker was subdued, and the power back on.

Ada had told him that everyone was gathered in the main hall. Good. He could keep and eye on them and make sure no one tried to leave.

-----------------------------------

A scream from above suggested to the captives that whatever the thing in the hall had been was loose on the floors above now. It wasn't a comforting thought. None of them spoke. There was nothing to say...not anything that wouldn't result in a fight anyway.

Leon heard foot steps in the hall outside,and looked up. A woman who appeared to be about 25 with long black hair stood at the door. Another face appeared beside her's. This one a young asian man, maybe 20.

"Over here, Boss," Said the young man, "I can't believe you forgot which cell you stuck 'em in, Phyl."

"Well you can't blame her," said another male voice, "she _was_ with me,"

"Zip it Tim " said another voice, this one familiar.

Ada stepped into veiw and there was a clank as the door unlocked. And another as Rebecca and Billy's was opened. Chris was about to speak,-(or rather, yell)-, to Ada when she raised a hand to stop him.

"Save your breath, Redfield," She said simply, "We don't have time for arguments,"

"Like hell we don't," said Claire, "I wanna know why the fuck you left us like that!"

"Well, I thought that would be obvious," said Jill, "she wanted to catch us. And she succeeded,"

Ada sighed in exasperation. "Look, this was the only way to get you in here and get the ball rolling. Right now, half of the men are dead or dying. There won't be many to stop you from getting to Wesker...Though you should watch out for the dead ones..they won't stay dead for long,"

"So who're these guys?" Chris asked, gesturing to the team gathered around.

"My employees," was the reply.

"Phyllis," that was the tall woman with the long black hair.

"Justin," the young asian man.

"Amber," a short young woman who looked to be about 23.

"Tim," a mischievious looking man with short brown hair. Something told Chris he was the comedian of the group.

"Tyler," a tall youth with close-cropped black hair. His gaze level and serious.

"And Mat," the young blond man that stood there looked as if he would have rather been any where than there.

Ada had led them up to the first floor of the building, making sure that no one was there to see. Looking around, Rebecca shivered. This place wasn't exaclty cozy. Another scream tore through the silence, making them all jump. The scream was abruptly cut off. Rebecca glance about nervously. The scream had sounded close, though in a place this big, things weren't always what they seemed. A moan echoed through the halls, and Becky heard Ada curse under her breath. That meant one thing; zombies.

She was trying to figure out where the moan had come from when she heard the man who'd been introduced as Mat scream


	5. Lost

_Chapter Five: Lost_

_T_he Stalker had its prey in its grasp. Unlike its cousins, the Silencers, it didn't make sure to keep its victim quiet before it killed them. The man in its grip screamed and struggled to get away, though it wouldn't have done him much good, not with nearly foot long claws digging into his arms and legs. Pain flared in the creature's side; One of the others had shot at it. As if the man in its grip was nothing more than a stick, it wrenched the arms that held him in opposite directions, making an audible snap as his back broke. The Stalker dropped him, and advanced on the others, who were backing away, guns trained on it. The Stalker hissed at them, rising up on 2 of its 6 legs. An attack position.

One of them shouted something and after a few hesitating steps backward, all of them turned and ran. The Stalker dropped back onto all it's feet. It had done all it needed to do. And that had been to get any threat away from its meal.

Not until they were well away from the creature did they stop running. And only then because none of them could move another inch without a break. Billy leaned against the wall, trying to breathe so fast as to hyperventilate. He glanced at the others, all breathing as heavily as he was. Ada and her team wore shocked or sad expressions, some a mixture of both. The rest, like Billy, were all stunned. How had the thing snuck up on them like that? How had something so large been able to move that quietly?

And one question that was easy to answer; Why hadn't it chased them? _Because it only wanted food...It didn't care about killing all of us, it only wanted to eat in peace. _ Billy didn't know what was worse: that something would chase them only because it was for ntohing more than killing, or that once it had its food it would leave them alone until it was hungry again.

True, only chasing them when it was hungry meant they didn't have to worry about it as much. But what if it didn't kill the next person it chose for dinner...What if it left them alive..would any of them really be able to leave that person behind while they escaped?

He knew the answer to that question as well, for some of them anyway.

"What..." said Leon, still gasping, "What was that?"

"A Stalker," Ada replied, "They're a mutation of the Silencers...We don't know what comes after the Stalker..."

Another scream rang out through the halls, sending chills down all their spines. Moans started to sound off every now nd then through the silence, and Claire began to get nervous. She had never wanted to hear that sound again. None of them had.

------------------------------

Krauser was in the lab. It hadn't been hard really. It was a simple matter to destroy the bars over the windows, then break the glass to get in. Pitifully easy. He would have expected more from Spencer...but then, there was still the rest of the place, which had to be full of traps. Hearing the same scream he'd heard earlier, he smiled... there were monsters too. Hopefully they would prove more challenging than the creatures in the other lab had.

He heard muffled voices filtering through the open door. Quietly he appraoched it and listened carefully. One voice was certainly Wesker's. The other he didn't recognize the other, but it was female.

"They've already lost one man to the Stalker sir: Booker," said the female voice.

"Hmm. Good...Maybe that will dishearten them a bit,"

"Doubtful sir. It will only make them more vigilant I think. She has the STARS with her, sir,"

There was a long pause. Krauser knew Wesker well enough to know that he was trying to get his temper under control before he spoke. "What? How?"

"She knew they were coming, sir. She had Phyllis and Tim capture them several hours ago,"

"So, Ryan and Green, hmmm...What of Matheson and Le?"

"They're with her to,"

Krauser didn't listen to any more. He had no need to. Gathering information about who was with who was not what he was here for. He was here for Ada and Leon...The rest would be mere entertainment.

--------------------------------

_Just my luck..._ Chris thought, trying to see through the darkness, _I'd have to end up in the area where the emergency lights don't work..._ The group had gotten split up when one of those creatures, a Silencer Ada had called them before, had attacked..at least, it had started as one. Three more had joined the fray not long after. Unlike the Stalker, they didn't want food, they were out to kill anything they could. He shifted the weight of his load a bit. One of Ada's group, Phyllis, had been with him. One of the Silencers had given her a nasty knock to the head. She had been out cold since. At least she wasn't to heavy, despite her height.

He was trying to decide the best course of action when his burden groaned and raised her head. She didn't speak, but Chris could make out enough of her form to see her nod in thanks. She stood fully on her own, "Where are we? Where are the others?"

"I don't know," He replied, "I was hoping you could tell me the first one,"

She didn't answer, but he could hear her moving about in the dark. He jumped when something behind him clanked, "What the?"

"Just me...trying to find the switch for the emergency lights...Though they should have been on,"

A dull light filled the room as Phyllis returned to his side. "I don't know why they were off..."

Chris looked up, hearing something. The ceiling was twices as tall as it was in the other rooms. He didn't like what he saw.

"Would that be why the lights were out?"

He pointed up, and Phyllis looked at the celing as well. Above their heads, in one huge furry mass were bats...Very _large_ bats.

----------------------------------

Rebecca sat curled up as tight as she could behind a larged statue of a knight. She could hear the Stalker eating it's last victim. It had been chasing her, after she had gotten away from the silencers. It had been by pure luck -(for her anyway)-, that the man had suddenly come around the corner...The Stalker had grabbed him instead, and Rebecca had hidden. She knew she needed to run before it got done eating, but she was frozen in place. She didn't want to leave the shelter of that statue and see what the monster had done to the man's body.

She gritted her teether after a moment...She had to get back to the others..she had been separated from them when the silencers had attacked them. Telling herself over and over and over again she was not going to look at the body, Rebecca crawled out from behind the statue, stood, and ran as fast as her legs could go. She heard a low growl, as if the Stalker was warning her to leave it be, and nothing more.

She didn't stop running until she was around a corner in the hall.

The sound of flesh and bone being ripped and chewed, though faint, was still audible. Rebecca squeezed her eyes shut, wishing more than anything that she would open them to find herself in her old room, to find that this was just a nightmare. Wished that she could just pull the covers over her head and go back to sleep, possibly to have a slightly more pleasant dream. But when she opened them, she was still in the nightmare. Still in that dark and forbidding hall.

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to continue on. She had to find the others. It wasn't safe to be alone.

-----------------------------------

Amber stalked through the empty halls. Not really caring one way or another if she found her team. In the end, only one person mattered, and that was her. She'd always been in this business for nothing more than the money. Sure it might be a little sad that the men -(and women)- that she'd gotten to know would die, but she'd get over it. She always did. She'd had other teams, other 'friends', and she'd gotten over their deaths just as easily. Some of them she'd even known longer than her current team.

A moan up ahead caught her attention. It was the first zombie she'd seen since the Stalker had been let loose. But this wasn't like the T-virus zombies that she had seen so often being used as target practice for the soldiers around there. This was another type of zombie..one created by the S-virus... Its arms had changed; split in 2 up to the elbow. The fingers on each half had merged together, and the fingernails had changed into long claws. It's teeth were longer and sharper than they should have been, though a few were missing. And unlike the regular zombies, it would not simply shuffle towards it's prey, it would run at them, faster than even the fastest of humans could run.

They were also the slightest bit more intelligent than a normal zombie; they would work together and ambush prey. Though they were still exetremely stupid...and often their attempts at ambushes would fail. Amber smiled in a rather evil way, and aimed her assault rifle towards the thing. Shooting things was always fun. She doubted this would be any less entertaining than her normal target practice.

-----------------------------

Billy was about ready to slam his head against the wall. He and Justin had been stuck in this dark, rancid smelling room for the past hour, trying to figure out how to get out. _Why are there always puzzles?_ He wondered. Even Justin didn't know what to do, and he worked in the place.

In front of them was a large panel with 4 round indentions. Inscribed above them were the words "The Snake devours the Rat. The Eagle devours the Snake. The Wolf devours them all." What the hell did that mean? They would have gone back out the way they came, but, as Billy had come to expect, the door had locked behind them.

They had been searching the room continuosly and had come up with three silver disks. Each had a faint engraving on them, but without being cleaned it would be impossible to tell what they were, and even then it wouldn't do any good until they had four (if there were four) of them. And knew what order to place them in.

"Found one!" Justin said, holding out a fourth disk.

This one wasn't as dirty as the rest, and the egraving was worn. This one was clearly a wolf's head. Billy rubbed the others clean with his shirt-(which needed a good wash of it's own)- and placed them beside him. There was a rat, an eagle, and a snake. And of course the wolf.

"Okay..so what order do they go in?"

Justin shrugged, "I dunno...I'd guess rat, snake, eagle, then wolf..or it could be the other way around.."

Billy nodded, collected the disks, and placed them in the indentions. at first, nothing happened, then they heard a grating sound, and dust fell from the ceiling in thick clouds.Billy looked up, and saw what he'd expected to see: The ceiling was lowering ever so slowly...And the doors still weren't open. Fumbling to pull the disks out, Billy tried to think of a different combonation.

----------------------------

Claire pounded on the door as hard as she could, trying to get in. Tim was behind her, shouting about the silencer getting closer. She shoved against the door with all her might, and rammed her shoulder into it. It accomplished nothing more than a bruised shoulder blade.

She slammed into it again, and was rewarded with the sound of wood splintering. Another slam. More splintering. She could hear Tim's gun going off, but paid no attention. Her shoulder was aching now, and she could feel bits of wood pericing her flesh. It would be alot of trouble trying to pick eack splinter out later, but that didn't matter now.

She slammed into the door one last time, and it flung open. "Come on!" she yelled to Tim, and ran down the hall the door had opened into. Tim was quick to obey, and caught up to her in a matter of seconds. They could hear the thing behind them, trying to catch up, but Tim had wounded it to much, and now it was clumsy and slow.

With one last burst of strength, the silencer launched its self at the two, and slammed into them. It felt like a ton of bricks had suddenly been dropped on Claire's back as Time and the silencer landed on her. The monster kept rolling. , squishing Claire and Tim even further. It stopped rolling maybe 10 feet away, and it was a moment before it quit moving comepletely. With groan, Tim pushed himself off of Claire, and stretched, his back popping several times. Claire shoved herself up as well, dusting her jeans off.

"That hurt..." she said, half in jest, half in earnest. She also stretched, though her back didn't snap. She spit when she tasted someting coppery in her mouth and found that she was bleeding. _must've bit my cheek when I fell_, she thought, spitting more blood out.

"You okay?" Tim asked, looking at her with genuine concern.

Claire smiled and nodded. She knew she must've looked silly, smiling, since her teeth were more than likely red with blood, but she didn't care. They set off down the hall, careful to go around the silencer.

------------------------------

Tyler glanced around nervously...When it was well lit, he could find his way around the mansion fairly well, but in the dark, and not having time to watch where he was going; no way. He and one of the women, Jill he thought her name was, were comepletely lost. Around them were no less than 10 bodies...all of them missing limbs, and each of them very dead...But things never stayed dead in an Umbrella lab...Tyler knew that from having worked for them.

Jill was carefully avoiding stepping on any of the bodies as they made their way across the room...The silencers had made short work of these people. He knew it wasn't the Stalker, because there wouldn't have been that many bodies if it had been.

Jill was at the door now, trying to open it. He didn't need to ask her if it was locked or not when she slammed her fist against it. She rattled the door knob a couple more times, as if to see if maybe the door had been playing a trick on her the first time. This time she kicked it.

"It- Wait!" she started and intreupted herself. She looked as though she'd suddenly had a genius idea. She dug through her pants pockets, until she found what she was looking for. Tyler recognized it as a lock picking set. She went to work on the door, muttering curses every now and then. Tyler was content to wait for her to unlock the door...until a body near his feet started to move. It's arms started to split in two, and the fingers and finger nails began to form into claws.

"Uh...Could you maybe hurry up with that door?" he said nervously as bodies all around began to move and change.

-----------------------------

"Where are the others?"

"I don't know,"

"Where are we?"

"I don't know,"

This was Leon and Ada's conversation as they walked through the mansion. Constant questions and answers. Well, Ada's answers weren't much... They certainly didn't help matters. It had been quite awhile since they'd been separated for the group, and they hadn't been able to find hide nor hair of them.

A grating sound to the left caught their attention. "Falling ceilings..." Ada muttered, and turned in the direction the sound came from. Leon hesitated for a moment, he'd had his share of falling ceilings-(spiked, no less)- in spain...He didn't want to end up in a situation where he might not be able to shut the thing off. But Ada was heading for the battered old door across the room, it was obvious she wasn't going to wait for him. Sighing, he ran to catch up with her. She was halfway down the pitch black hallway by the time he was next to her again. He was about to say something when the door they'd come through slammed shut on it's own, blocking off any source of light they had.

"Shit" Ada grumbled, "Watch out...this c-"

She had no more time to speak before the floor dropped from beneath them, sending the plunging down.

They landed in a pool of water maybe 2 feet deep. A dull thud signalled the floor sliding back into place. Ada pushed herself up out of the water, her language getting more and more colorful by the second. Leon heard bits of other words in between the profanity, mostly about the pain she would inflict upon the man who'd designed that place. Leon stood as well, trying not to laugh at her. He doubted she would take kindly to being laughed at. He glanced at their surroundings. The 'room' was circular, and solid stone. Granite from the look of things. The water was only in the center of the room. The outer edges were dry...Or had been until the pair had fallen, soaking the whole floor with the water.


	6. More Suprises

_Chapter Six: More Surprises_

_J_ustin helped Billy try to figure out what they were supposed to do. It would only be a matter of minutes before the ceiling crushed them. "Okay umm...fuck!" he said when he dropped on of the disks.

He picked it up and noticed something odd. He had the wolf disk in his hand, yet the one he picked up also had a wolf on it. He turned it over, and on the back was the engaving of the snake. _That's it!_ he thought, _He had them in the right order, but on the wrong side!_

"Billy, flip 'em over, and put 'em in the same order as before,"

Billy gave him and odd sort of look, but quickly did as Justin had said. They were rewarded with the sound of the ceiling falling even faster, and the panel sliding back, revealing a door. Both of them scrambled to their feet and rushed for the door. Thankfully, it was unlocked. They made it out just in time...A few seconds longer and they would have been dead.

The ceiling met the floor, and demolished the open door with a deafening _boom_. Billy and Justin looked at each other and nodded. No words were needed, they both knew they were lucky...Very lucky. The door had opened into a large dining room. It, unlike the rest of the building, was lit with torches instead of ancient looking lamps. The flames cast odd shadows that danced across the room, and the light was reflected in the gleaming oak table. It was comepletely silent, save for the crackling of the fire. They cautiously headed for the table, which, oddly, had only 2 chairs. One at each end. Justin shrugged when Billy looked at him. He hadn't been there long enough to know the whole place inside out, and he hadn't bothered to explore too much.

A one of the 7 torches went out when the large double doors across the room opened. Rebecca stumbled in, nearly falling as she tried to get away from the zombie,-(if it was a zombie..it certainly didn't look like one..)-, that was behind her. She dove under the table and crawled out the other side, and the 'zombie' tried to figure out a way to get to her.

Justin aimed his pistol at the thing, and fired. It took the whole clip to bring the monster down. Rebecca looked up, and saw the men. She scrambled to her feet and ran for Billy, slamming into him, and hugging him tightly.

"You okay?" Billy asked, pushing her away so he could get a better look at her.

"Yeah...fine," Becky replied. She turned to Justin, "Thanks, by the way...I owe you one,"

Justin shrugged, "No problem,"

"Any idea where the others are?" Rebecca asked, turning back to Billy.

Billy shook his head. "Not a clue. But you found us at least. I'm sure we can find the others,"

---------------------------------------

Amber was walking camly through the library when she heard the shouts. They were coming from behind a barred door to the left of her. She dropped the book she had been flipping through and moved towards the door. She recognized one voice as Tyler. The other was one of the STARS women. She could hear Tyler shouting for the woman to hurry and get the door unlocked. Appearently she gave up on trying to pick the lock, because something suddenly slamemd against the door. And Amber was willing to bet it had been a person.

Smirking, Amber pulled the bar away from the door, then stood back, and shot at the door knob. As she had expected, the next ram into the door sent both Jill and Tyler tumbling into the room. There were more of the zombies starting to get up in the room they'd been trying to get out of.

"Nice of you to drop in," Amber said sarcastically, as they stood up.

"Not funny, Ambs," said Tyler, glancing back at the zombies, "We need to get moving..."

Jill nodded in agreement, and before Amber had any say in the matter, they were both heading for the exit.

"What the-?" She started, shrugging as she watched them go. She sighed and caught up with them. "Leave me behind why don't'cha," She grumbled.

Neither of them answered her. They only quickened their pace when several moans echoed behind them. Amber looked over her shoulder, and quickened her pace as well. All the bodies from the room had gotten up, and were now _running _towards them. Despite the fact that they were dead, the zombies were quickly gaining on them, the s-virus having enhanced their speed until they could run as fast, or faster than a normal human. The three of them ran for the door, hearing the zombies' feet behind them. Jill made it to the exit first, and opened the door. Amber and Tyler followed her in, and shut the door.

Very large bats fluttered around their faces . Tyler slapped at them, as they flew at him, trying to get to his eyes. He heard two more voices in the center of the room; Phyllis and Chris. Tyler could feel the furry bodies ramming into him as they did their best to inflict damage. But something was wrong...They even ran into walls, something that was unusual for a bat. They were comepletely blind, he realized, without even their radar sense to guide them. So they attacked sightlessly at anything they heard, trying to blind their enemies as they had been blinded.

"Everyone be very quiet and very still!" he shouted, over the shouts of the others, and the nervous squeaking of the hundreds of bats.

They did as they were told, and the attack from the animals lessened, until they finally went back to their ceiling roost, appearently going by memory alone. All five of them breathed a sigh of relief. They stood there, afraid to move, for fear that the bats would attack again After a moment, Jill took a cautious step towards another door, and Chris shook his head. That was the door he and Phyl had come through, and the hall way was blocked off. he pointed to two other doors on the eastern wall, one blood red, the other, black.

There was a loud _bang!_ from the door that Amber, Tyler and Jill had come through. It sent the bats into a frenzy again, though this time they went for the door. Another bang, and the door began to split. Bats went through the hole that was growing larger and larger and dove at the zombies. The zombies paid little attention to them, except for one, who grabbed a bat that had flown at it's face. It chewed on the creature for a moment before swallowing it practically whole.

All five of them lept into action, running for the red and black doors.

"Which one?" Jill asked, though not anyone in particular.

"Black one!" Amber replied.

Chris threw the door open, and waited for the others to go through before he finally shut the door.

"Keep moving," Amber commanded.

No one bothered to argue. They kept moving down the long empty hall. None of them saying anything. The silence was eerie, but none felt like breaking it. As they walked Chris got the sudden unpleasant feeling that somone else was there...watching them. The feeling bugged him, but he said nothing to the others...They felt it to. He could tell by the way they glance about nervously, like something was going to jump out at them.

---------------------------------

Wesker wandered through the halls, listening. Every now and then, A scream would ring out, mostly of people who had been found by the stalker. It wasn't the silencers that were finding them, he knew, because they never would have gotten the chance to scream. Some times the scream wasn't human...That was the Silencers and the Stalker. Wesker pushed his shades up with one hand as he glanced down at his watch, 3 hours since this had all started. 3 hours and he still hadn't found the lovely miss Wong and her little group of traitors, though he knew he'd find them eventually...That or he would ring Davis's scrawny little neck. The woman had been reporting to him for awhile on Ada's plans, though she hadn't mentioned this one. Not that he was surprised that she hadn't. No, she was like Ada had once been, cruel and calculating, always going along with what benefited her.

He grinned to himself, thinking. The girl might have made a mistake about what was in her best interests this time, however. Her loyalty was more than that of just an employee, and the real reason behind it ammused him. But she would serve her purpose before the end. He always found a way to use those that were to loyal for their own good, and tiny Amber Davis would be no different.

------------------------------------

Tim followed Claire silently. Odd, really, since he was the one who was supposed to know his way around. But he hadn't been with Umbrella long enough to have know this mansion. He had been in the old base. The only people on the team that had been around long enough to have been in the mansion were Phyllis and Amber. He, Justin, Tyler, and Mat had all joined after they had moved out of this place. Neither of them spoke, as there was nothing really to say.

Corpses marked their path, as they had already run into several of the rather odd zombies. They were extremely hard to kill. Even shooting them in the head took multiple shots. Hitting their body would take a whole clip worth of ammo. Not exactly good for their limited ammo supply. And there wasn't really much they could do to run around them as they were to fast. Thing's didn't look good at the moment, both were out of ammo, not that Claire'd had much to begin with. Nor had Tim. Good thing they were able to steal ammo from various dead guards.

The room they were in was huge. The black walls were unadorned. The cathedral ceiling, also black, was bare as well. The floor was gleaming white tile, though it glowed orange from the candles that were on the floor, along the wall. Each and everyone was lit. There was nothing else in the room, aside from them. Claire got the feeling that no one was supposed to be in here, least of all them. But Tim moved past her to the center of the room. From the expression on his face, she could tell he was as clueless as she was.

Claire took a step forward, and the tile she put her foot on sank into the floor several inches. She could hear clanking, and grinding gears. 

"Uh...Tim..."

To late to warn him. The damage was done. As he started to turn towards her, seven-foot spikes sprouted from the floor Tim felt it start to peirce his foot and managed to get off of one spike before it killed him...He was not so lucky with the next. He stumbled and fell flat on his back, and within seconds another spike had peirced through his body. Claire turned her face away and willed herself not to hear him frantically trying to breathe.

The spikes withdrew back into the floor. And for a moment Claire thought that that was the end of it, but as she stepped forward, the spikes rose again, one only a foot from her. As they once again withdrew, Claire noticed that a small portion of the tile slid back into place over it. There was a thin, barely visisible square that didn't quite match up with the rest. The tiles she was standing on looked normal. And idea came to mind, and she gritted her teeth, and stepped onto the tile that the spike had come from. Nothing happened. She breathed a sigh of relief and looked for a places to put her other foot. As she did so, her gaze passed briefly over Tim's now limp from, blood pooling around him. Another spike had gone through his head when they had appeared the second time, so mixing with the blood was a grey viscous matter. Claire's stomach heaved at the sight, but she willed herself to be strong, and concentrate. She had to be careful where she stepped or she'd be joining Tim.

-------------------------------------

Krauser looked at the group ahead of him with some disappointment. This wasn't all of them. There were only five here, and Leon and Ada were not among them. He watched the from the beams that held the ceiling up. Appearently this hall hadn't been quite finished when Spencer had chose it. But it provided Krauser with a good way to keep an eye on them, without them knowing he was there. Krauser realized he wasn't alone in watching the group, and looked up. There was a rather large creature on a beam in front of him, that resembled the creatures at the old base. But it was much larger, and had a few extra legs on it. It paid no attention to him as it went silently from beam to beam, watching its prey closely.

Krauser thought breifly about killing the thing, then thought better of it. If it wasn't going to bother him, let it have its fun. _Enjoy your meal_ he thought, watching it. It dropped from the ceiling without a sound, and began to slink along the floor behind the five people below. None of them seemed to notice. Or they didn't until a narrow area of the hall came up, and the creature's body scraped along the wall. That had them all in a frenzy. Then they realized what it was. None of them bothered trying to shoot it, so one's shouts of "Don't shoot it, just run!" were pointless. The creature no longer had need to be silent. It squeezed through the narrow part, then let out a scream and pursued the group. Krauser didn't stay to see if it would catch them or not. Instead he dropped to the floor, and went out the door that the group had come through. Time was running short. He needed to find the ones he wanted dead, and kill them.

-----------------------------

Justin, Billy, and Rebecca heard the noise before they saw what was causing it. An eerie wailing emitted from all around them, it seemed. It sounded almost like a child's cry, but the feeling they all got from it was different entirely. The cry ceased for a moment, then began again. A small form stumbled around the corner ahead of the three. It appeared to be a child, a girl, of no more than three or four years old. Her skin, that was white as snow, was made even more pale by the crimson fabric draped over her tiny body, like a robe. Her eyes were the same shade of crimson as the fabric, and they glowed in the dim light. She saw the group ahead of her, and her wail ceased instantly, turning into a laugh of joy. Accompanying the laugh was a smile, to reveal perfectly white, razor sharp teeth. It was an unnerving sight.

She walked towards them on unsteady feet. Rebecca took several steps backwards without realizing it, as did the men. The child saw this, and her blood-red eyes widened as if in shock. A tiny hand pushed ghostly white hair away from her face as tears began to slide down her plump cheeks. She began to scream again, and the sound echoed, making it seem as if the walls themselves were joining in on her wailing. The girl began to run at them, her arms outstrectched as if she was expecting one of them to embrace her. Her bare feet slapped against the polished wooden floor, as her cry continued. All three of them backed away, surprised at the child's speed. Though they didn't back away fast enough. Tiny fingers clutched at Rebecca's filthy jeans as the child tried to make her stop moving.

Looking down at the girl, Rebecca felt the urge to pick her up and comfort her. As if reacting to this urge, she involuntarily began to kneel. She saw the girl's smile as she did so, but it wasn't the pleasant smile of an infant who was happy to be shown attention...It was the self satisfied smile of someone who'd just gotten away with doing something bad. Rebecca heard one of the men shout, and then she was being drug away from the child. The infant's cries rang out once more, but now Rebecca was running along with Billy and Justin. she didn't dare look back, for fear that the girl might once again take hold of her.

They didn't stop running until they could no longer breathe.

"Who, or what the hell was that?" Billy asked when he'd caught his breath.

"I- I don't know much more than her name," Justin replied, "Her name is Kylie Edwards. She was captured along with her brother, Jason, a year ago. That was before I was here. Her brother ran away from home, appearently, and took her with him. I know her name because of all the stories that go around, about the experiments done on a little girl... They did experiments on her brother as well, but a month after I joined, after his continuos shouts to see his sister, they let him see her...When they went to get her an hour later, there was nothing left of Jason but a few bits of his clothes,"

"That's horrible!" Rebecca exclaimed.

Justin nodded, and was about to say something else when a familiar scream came from nearby. Not wasting another minute, all three of them were heading for another door.

-------------------------------

Now Leon joined in on Ada's cursing. They'd found an exit to the room, oh yes, but it only opened from the outside. Had Leon not been on the handleless side of the small hatch, he might have stopped to appreaciate Umbrella's intelligence in the structure of the place. That, however was not the case.

"So how the hell are we supposed to get out of here?" he asked, though he didn't expect an answer. Nor did he get one.

Ada was sitting across from him, though for all the attention she wasy paying to what was going on, she may as well have been miles away. She seemed lost in her own world, as she had before in the house, and in the base. Once again his curiousity welled up. What was it that haunted her so? He was almost afraid to ask, but now was as good a chance as any, since she couldn't very well run away from him in here. He moved to sit next to her.

"What?" She asked, though her tone of voice suggested she didn't really care what he wanted.

"What's bothering you? And don't say it's nothing. Everytime you're left to your own devices, you do this. You go into your own world, and act as if nothing else exists."

"It's nothing," She replied, though more harshly then she meant to.

Leon sighed, "Fine...," and got up. He kept his back to her, thinking.

All was silent for a long while, before Leon heard Ada groan, as if in defeat. He still didn't face her, however. Ada bit her lip. She had kept what she was about to say a secret for eighteen years.

"I was twelve," she said, hesitantly, "The night I saw my parents murdered."

Now Leon turned to her. He saw he tears clouding her eyes. She wiped them away, though it didn't dor much good, as she only succeeded in soaking the rest of her face with her wet hands. Leon sat next to her again. Ada glanced at him quickly before she took a deep breath, and began her story.


	7. Painful Memory

_Chapter Seven: Painful Memory_

_A_da sat at the kitchen table, spinning around in her chair as she chattered to her mother about some boy. Kate, her mother, did nothing more than nod or mutter "hmm" at what she knew was the right time. Her daughter was rather talkative, and blocking her out was a necessary skill, unless she was talking about something other than her friends or boys. After a few more minutes of chattering inccessantly, Ada realized her mother wasn't listening to a word she was saying,and hopped out of her chair, and immediatly procceeded to try catching her cat, who tried desperately to get to the living room, where it knew it would be left in peace.

However, the cat failed in its attempts to escape, and stopped struggling in Ada's grip. It glared at her, growling softly, as she stroked it. Ada was about to turn and say something to her mother when her father burst in through the back door. Both his daughter and his wife looked at him, clearly startled.

"Are you okay, Daddy?" Ada asked, still holding the aggrivated cat.

Her father nodded at her, and motioned for his wife to follow him out of the room.

Ada watched her parents leave, puzzled. She let the cat go, who instantly ran for the saftey of the space under the couch in the next room. Ada thought about going and listening at her parent's bedroom door, but refused the urge...If they wanted her to know what was troubling them, they would tell her...They didn't keep secrets from her.

The rest of the afternoon, and all through the evening, her parents continuosly cast worried glances at her, and eachother. Every time they heard soemthing outside, they would quickly check to see what it was, and breathe a sigh of relief when it turned out to be nothing. When it got dark, they kept a close watch on time. the house was silent, no one said a word. Ada was almost afraid to speak. She felt that if she did, she might cause her parents to become even more wound up than they already were, but words kept bubbling up, and she fought hard not to talk. Finally the silence became to much to take and she wandered into the living room, coming up behind her mother and father,

"Mom, Dad?"

Both of them jumped, and spun around as if they were expecting to see monster in place of their daughter. Both looked equally relieved to see it was just her.

"Yes, Ada?" Her mother said, trying to sound calm, and failing, "What is it?"

Seeing their reactions to her, Ada decided it might be wise _not_ to say anything else. "Nevermind." She replied, and strode across the room to sit in her favorite chair.

The watching of time, and the silence continued until around 9 pm, when Ada's mother spoke up, this time startling Ada.

"Sweetheart, Time for bed. No reading, no music. Go straight to bed, and stay there. Don't leave your room," She tried to smile, and make her request seem normal, but the worry in her eyes told Ada differently.

Not arguing, she went up the stairs to her room, though she left the door open a crack, so she could hear anything that might go on. Normally, she would have read for a while before she turned out the lights, or listened to some music, but her mother had been clear that that was off limits tonight. She had also made it clear that she wanted Ada asleep before a certain time...That she wanted her to sleep through something... An hour later, she heard a knock at the front door. Resisting the urge to get up and see who it was that was there that late, she listened carefully. She could hear muffled voices that she knew belonged to her parents, and a third that she vaguely recognized, though she couldn't place it. The voices started to grow louder, and she heard the third voice say:

"I don't have to do this...You can join in on the research, and escape this."

Then her mother's voice, though slightly quieter (Ada had to strain to hear): "No...We would never take part in something like that."

She heard her father cursing at the owner of the third voice in chinese. What little she understood wasn't something her father would normally say.

the third voice spoke again: "Very well. Spencer was the one that requested I give you a chance..He's becoming a little soft in his old age I think."

Ada heard her mother gasp at something, and then a dull thud of something heavy falling on the floor. Ada threw the covers off of herself and quietly opened her bedroom door and creeped down the hall, until she could see below into the living room. She bit back a scream at what she saw. Her father was on the floor, umoving, blood pooling around him, and her mother was standing in front of a tall, handsome blonde man in sunglasses, dressed all in black. She could see her mother trembling with fear as tears coursed down her cheeks. The blonde man grinned at her mother, and wiped blood from the bowie knife he held in his hand. her mother let out a small sound, like a whimper, at the sight of the knife that had killed her husband, but she didn't try to run.

"Run, Mama, run. Please run," Ada whispered over and over again, unable to move, and even unable to speak above a whisper.

But her mother didn't run. Instead, when the man raised the knife, she straightend bravely. Ada tried to squeeze her eyes shut, or look away, but found herself unable to do either. With her eyes wide open, Ada saw the man plunge the large knife into her mother's chest. In horror she watched as a crazy grin spread over his face and he twisted the knife, and her mother dropped to the floor. The man removed the knife from her beautiful mother's body, wiped it clean on the woman's dress, smiled and turned and left the house, whistleing cheerfully.

Only once she'd heard the front door close did Ada rush down the stairs, hoping against hope that somehow her parents were alive. But they weren't. They were dead. And all she had was a the name 'Spencer' and the face of her parents' killer. Now she screamed, and it was her scream the brought the neighbors. They found her sitting there in a pool of her parents' blood, sobbing. She said not a word to them when they tried to comfort her, nor did she say anything when asked what happened. When the police took her, she said not a word. It was 2 months before she spoke to anybody. And in that 2 months she had formed her plan. She knew the name Spencer, and why the blonde man's voice had sounded familiar. Spencer was the head of Umbrella, where her parents had worked, and the voice had belonged to the man who had often called the house, asking to speak to her mother or father.

The first word any one heard out of her since the night of Kate and Jonathan Wong's murder was "Umbrella."

Though she did start speaking again, Ada was never the same. Where she had once been a happy, outgoing child, she was now secluded, and kept her feelings to herself. Where she had once been an incessant babbler, she now remained silent, unless someone spoke directly to her. Though as time passed, she became less secluded, and talked more, she never went back to being the carefree girl she had been.

When she was 18 she began to put her plans into action. First was to get inside Umbrella, and work her way to the top...But when 2 years produced nothing, she began to think that maybe her ideas had been nothing more than a child's wishful thinking. Then she met Jon.

Her boyfriend managed to get her into Umbrella, and she began to think that just maybe she had a chance. Over time, she began to enjoy her job, and though she still had yet to find her parents' murderer, she wasn't giving up. And her stubborness paid off...for she found him.

With all she'd been through, nothing would have prepared her for the day when she was assigned to work for Albert Wesker, as a spy. She was rather looking forward to it. She had heard much about Albert, but had never met him. Though she had heard that he had a reputation for being rather vicious. Joking with one of the few friends she'd made, she headed for Wesker's office. William Birkin was just leaving the room as she was about to enter. Nodding at him, she stepped past him, and into the office.

There was something familiar in the figure that stood before her. She couldn't see his face, because he had his back to her, but the black clothing, and the build struck a chord in her memory.

"You must be Ada." he said, and Ada's eyes widened in shock,"Nice to meet you."

He turned to her, and she saw his face, and his shades, and any doubt of who he was vanished. 8 years of searching, and the man who'd killed her parents was standing right in front of her. He looked slightly amused at the sight of her.

"Your mouth is hanging open." He said, with a laugh.

Ada was quick to snap her jaw shut. She didn't quite trust herself to speak, so she remained silent.

"Have a seat." said Wesker, in an almost friendly tone. When Ada remained both silent and still he snapped, "Are you deaf, girl? I said have a seat!"

This moved Ada into action, and she sat in the chair he offered. Part of her wanted to leap at him right then and strangle him, while the other told her to be patient and take her time. And so she waited patiently, and did her job, waiting for the right time to strike...

---------------------------------

For a long while after Ada finished, neither of them spoke. Leon didn't try to tell her he understood, because he didn't. He didn't understand why she had let Wesker live so long afterwards, if her intention had been to kill him. Though, as if reading his thoughts, Ada suddenly said

"I waited, and waited. I never got the chance, he was always in the company of someone else, usually William Birkin. And after he 'died' there was no way I could have taken him on my own...,"

"So you kept working with him, and then you came to us," Leon said, nodding. It made sense now. "What about Spencer?"

"He's the one who gave the order for them to be killed...So he's the one I'm going to kill," she pulled the knife at her side out of its sheath. It was a bowie knife. "I stole this a few months ago. This is the knife Wesker used on them. It was given to him by Spencer..."

She turned the knife back and forth, watching the blade, as if hypnotized, "Ironic, isn't it? That he should be killed by the same blade as my parents...Yes...Poetic justice,"

Leon got the feeling she wasn't really talking to him anymore, but to herself instead. He sat there silently for a long while as Ada continued to twirl the knife, the reflections from the water glinting off of it. Finally, she stopped, and put the knife away.

"I know how we can get out of here," she stated firmly.

"Yeah? How?"

"That hatch is on a timed lock...I just remembered. It should be opening an-"

Before she could finish speaking, the hatch across from them opened, but seeing what was behind it, Leon would have rather it stayed closed. Looking in at them with blood-red eyes, was a little girl. She smiled, almost evilly at them...Each of her teeth were pointed, and they dripped with fresh blood.


	8. The Price is Payed

_Chapter Eight: The Price is Payed_

_C_laire's whole body shook. For half an hour she had been making her way across the large room, and having to bend down and inspect each tile before she stepped on it was starting to take it's toll. It was hard to bend her back, and even harder to straighten it again. _I can't keep doing this! _ her mind screamed, but she kept going anyway. She could feel a headache coming on as well. She was halfway across the room now, and ten feet awa from her was Tim's body. She forced herself not to look in the direction, but the path of tiles that she could stand on made that immpossible. It was a long and painful process, but she finally made it to the other side of the room, and she wondered breifly for what, when she spotted the door. Painted black, it was almost invisible. Still being careful, she went for the door and turned the knob. Thankfully it opened. The other side of the door was painted bright red. She stepped into the room, and gasped at what she saw. There were more of those zombies piled everywhere, all torn to ribbons. Before she could inspect them further, she heard shouts,and gun fire coming from behind another door, this one black.

She was heading for the door, when a sound behind her caught her attention. She turned around, and gasped in surprise. In the doorway acrss the room stood a tall well-built man. His blonde hair was streaked with blood. His skin was red from blood as well. He appeared human at first, until she saw his arm. His arm wasn't an arm any more. It resembled a wing, almost, but it was really a blade.

"Boo," He said, watching her closely.

Claire didn't dare move. Something told her that it would be a death warrant if she did. After two minutes of standing stock still, she began to inch towards the door again. In the blink of an eye, the man was blocking her path. Claire gaped at him, and decided now would be a good time to get the hell out. She could hear voices, coming from the left of her, one was Rebecca. Trying not to let it show on her face what she was going to do, Claire bolted for the door the man had come through. Just as before, he was blocking her path in the blink of an eye.

Claire backed up, trying to think of what to do. The door she had heard the gunshots from burst open suddenly, and without thinking, Claire spun around. Chris was there, and for a moment, he looked relieved to see her, then his eyes widened it horror. Claire didn't even turn half way around before she felt the blade slicing through her back.

-------------------------------------

"I'm telling you I heard something!" Rebecca argued.

She had been fighting with the two men for awhile now, bugging them to go back and check, but neither of them would listen. Were it not for the fact that she had hardly any ammo, she would have gone to see what it was on her own. But that fact was just that, a fact. So she stayed with them, and tried to persuade them to turn back.

The hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood up. Was it her imagination, or was something blocking out the light? Was there someone behind her? Or was it just her?

"Hey Re...becca..." Billy started and turned around. So did Justin. He had the same look of shock on his face that Billy did.

"What-"

She stopped speaking when Wesker's calm voice interupted her, "Hello again, Rebecca."

Hearing his voice sent Rebecca leaping forward to get out of his reach. He was standing there, looking rather amused as Billy wrapped a protective arm around Becky. Justin had his gun aimed at Wesker, though it was obvious he knew it wouldn't do much good.

"Well well well, Justin Le, is it? I must say, had I not been told you were with this rag-tag little bunch, I wouldn't believe it."

He got no reply, but he didn't seem to care. He pulled a knife seemingly out of nowhere. "It seems," he said with some disappointment, as he pretended to examine the blade, "That someone stole my good knife...Pity. It's the one I like to use when killing a former employee."

Before any of them could so much as breathe, Wesker had moved forward and buried the knife deep in Justin's stomach. At first, neither Billy nor Rebecca reacted, then in a flash, Billy lept forward, to try and tackle Wesker. The man simply acted as if Billy were nothing more than a bothersome fly, and flung him away, slamming him into the wall.

"No!" Rebecca shouted, trying to get to her fallen partner, but Wesker caught her as she went by, and threw her into the miraculously still standing Justin. She and Justin hit the floor with an audible thud. Wesker payed no more attention to them. Instead he turned to Billy, who was trying to get himself back into the realm of conciousness.

"I think you've been enough of a nusiance," he said, preparing to strike. Rebecca was quick this time. She grabbed Justin's gun, and fired several rounds into Wesker's knees. She managed to drop him with the fourth round. Now Wesker turned his attention to Rebecca. He got up, though not without some difficulty, and moved towards her. _This is it...I'm dead..._ Rebecca thought, seeing him raise his arm to hit her. But the blow never came. Wesker was looking down the hall at something that Rebecca couldn't see or hear, until a few seconds later. Wailing. Becky recognized the sound, and she wasn't sure if it was a good thing this time or not. From around the corner came two people, Leon and Ada, it looked like. And following them was Kylie. Ada was going slower than Leon, and it was easy to see why; blood poured from a wound on her thigh, and Kylie's hands were covered in blood as well . She ran with amazing speed, for someone with such short legs. She was quickly gaining on the pair. The pair didn't seem to notice that Wesker was ahead of them...Didn't notice, or didn't care. Ada's leg gave out, and she dropped to the floor. Leon was quick to spin around and help her up, but by then Kylie had caught up to them. She wrapped her hands around Leon's arm and dug her nails into his skin as he tried to get her off and help Ada at the same time. Ada used her good leg, and delivered a kick to the girl's stomach, knocking her back long enough to give her time to get back to her feet.

That was when they saw Wesker.

----------------------------

Ozwell Spencer sat behind his desk in the dim light. He could hear shouts and gunshots now and then, but he didn't let them disturb him. Things had gone wrong, yes, but that did not mean that there was reason to panic. There was always a way, he had found, to fix something. And for now, the best remedy was to let all the different parties fight their little battles, and finally, when they were all dead, the creatures could be taken care of. The sad thing was, Albert would have to be taken care of along with them. It had been a long time since Albert had actually had any loyalty towards Spencer, but he'd never done anything about it. But now...Now would be a good time. When things were in a frenzy, when he would least expect it. Yes...Now would be a good time. A smile crept to Spencer's lips. He would do it himself... After all, who better to kill Albert than the man who had given him shelter all these years? Perfect.

In the ever growing darkness, as the lights began to lose their power again, Spencer began to laugh.

---------------------------------

"What is-" Leon began, staring at the child, but Ada stopped him.

"When I say go, we run past her at the same time...We don't want to fight with her," the expression on her face told Leon that she wasn't lying. "One...Two...Three...GO!"

Both of them dove out of the hatch, and ran. Leon grasped Ada's hand, though wether to make sure she kept up, or just because, he wasn't sure. But it was a good thing he had, for a moment later, she stopped running, and in turn, stopped Leon as well. The girl had hold of her, and was sinking her teeth into Ada's leg. Ada shoved her off, and stumbled forward, and they started to run again. The child began to scream, behind them, and they could hear her feet pounding on the floor. They rounded a corner and Ada began to slow down. Leon was about to reach back and grab her hand again when she fell. He stopped and went back to her and tried to help her up. He felt pain falre up in his arm and realized that the girl was digging her fingers and nails into his skin. Ada kicked at her and shoved her back, then got back to her feet. But they didn't start running again...In front of them was Albert Wesker.

For a moment, Wesker looked as shocked to see them as they were to see him. But he quickly got over it. Behind them, the girl stood up, and began to slowly walk towards them. Ada glanced back and forth from the child to Wesker, as if trying to decide which she'd rather run past. She started to turn and go the other way, when she heard a voice say "Look out!"

That was Rebecca. But the warning was to late. Before either Ada or Leon could seewhat was happening they were both in Wesker's grip.

"Ah...The traitor and the ghost," Wesker said, coldly, "You were supposed to be dead, Mr. Kennedy,"

Neither of them could reply, as their air supply was cut off by Wesker's hands wrapped around their throats. His grip tightened bit by bit. Ada tried to force herself to remain concious, but she knew it wouldn't do much good. In a matter of seconds, both she and Leon would be dead... That was her last thought...

Before Wesker suddenly released both of them.

The girl was attacking Wesker. Beating him with tiny fists and biting anywhere she could reach. Trying to shove her away did no good for Wesker, as she latched on to his hand. Fron the look of things, her teeth had gone even though the bone. Still choking, and rubbing her throat, Ada drug Leon to to his feet. They went to check on Rebecca, who was untangling herself from a body. Ada bit back a gasp when she saw who it was. An angry yell from Wesker kept her from examining Justin any further. Rebecca, as soon as she stood, rushed to billy, who was pulling himself up as well. They all looked back at Wesker. He was still tryin to get the girl off of him, only now she was clinging to his arm instead of his leg . Something was happening to her, as well. Her nails, on her hands and feet, were growing longer, becoming more like claws. She used them to do further damage. Not wanting to know what would happen if they stuck around until either she killed Wesker or Wesker killed her, the group turned and ran.

---------------------------------------

The creature came up from behind them, and when they tried to run, it gave up on stealth and simply began to blindly chase them. Tyler was the first to see that the hall was a dead end. Part of it, it seemed, had caved in. Tyler skidded to a halt. Jill, who was paying more attention to the Stalker than where she was going, ran into him. The others managed to stop before they to ran into him. They were trapped. The Stalker was coming up fast, and there was no way to go around the cave in.

Sighing, Tyler turned around and took aim at the approaching creature. He knew his rifle wouldn't have much effect on it, but it might buy them some time to get by it. The others joined him in firing at the thing. It went down, only for a few seconds, but it went down. None of them needed to be told to move. They ran back the way they'd come, though it was a few minutes before any of them realized that the thing wasn't pursuing them.

Tyler didn't let his guard down, though. just because it was gone for now, didn't mean that it was gone for good.

Chris was at the front of the group again. No one objected though, which was just as well. "I guess we have no choice but to go back the way we came," Chris muttered to Phyllis who was behind and to the left of him.

She gave no reply other than a simple nod. It hadn't taken long for Chris to figure out that Phyl wasn't much of a talker. Not that any of them were in the mood for a conversation anyway. Despite her occupation and her silence, Chris found that he actually liked Phyl. They reached the door they'd come through and Chris opened it. Claire stood there, with her back to them, though she spun when she heard the door open. For a moment, Chris was relieved to see her, then the relief was replaced by horror when he saw the person behind his sister. The man raised his bladed arm, as Claire started to turn and see what Chris was looking at., and brought it down across her back in one clean swipe, dropping her instantly.

_NO!!_ Chris's mind screamed, though he was sure he must have spoken aloud as well. The second time he _did_ say it out loud, "NO!"

_This isn't happening! _He told himself as Claire fell to the floor and her attacker laughed, _It can't be! I'm dreaming! I'm DREAMING!!_ But it wasn't a dream...Claire's lifeless form was really on the ground in front of him. And the man who'd killed her was really standing there, laughing. Without any other thought than vengance in his head, Chris charged at the man. It didn't matter that he could have killed Chris as quickly as he had Claire. It didn't matter that there was little chance that Chris could beat him. All that mattered was that Claire was dead, and this man was going to pay. But the man was gone in the blink of an eye. Chris swore loudly as Jill called out behind him.

She was knelt over Claire's body, not noticing the blood that soaked through her pants. Chris knelt beside her. At first, Chris could believe his eyes, but Claire was still breathing. Though this knowledge did little to make him feel any better. Her breathing was labored, and from the sound, she had blood rapidly filling her lungs. He cradled his sister as she struggled to hold onto life. She looked up at him, and muttered one, barely audible word; "Chris..."

Jill was in tears next to him, and Chris was close. Claire went limp, and the tears couldn't be held back any longer. Claire was dead. His baby sister, who he'd always fought so hard to protect, who should never have come with them, was dead. He'd never hear her laugh again, never see her bright smile again. He'd never see her drive up on her motorcycle to drag him off "to have dinner with Jill" again. It was a long time before he finally kissed her forehead and stood up to face the others.


	9. One thing after another

_Chapter Nine: One thing after another_

_L_eon stared at the body in front of him in disbelief. Claire lay in front of him. Nearly sliced all the way through, from her shoulder to her hip. Blood pooled around her. She had died recently, no more than 20 minutes ago.

Rebecca was trembling at the sight. She and Claire had been good friends. They were all quiet until Ada said "Krauser."

"Huh?" said Billy, "Krauser?"

"But he's dead," said Leon, staring at her.

"Well, I thought he was too, when you thought you'd killed him. But he wasn't dead. Who's to say he didn't survive the fight with me?" Ada replied calmly.

No one replied to her, and once again they stood there in silence. Leon could hear Rebecca sniffling, and Billy muttering to her. Once again it was Ada that spoke first, "Leon, you see if you can find the others. I have unfinished business to take care of,"

Leon stared at her, dumbfounded. He knew what she was talking about, but to leave them alone, with no one to help through the mansion? She gave him time to reply before she said, "I'll catch up to you soon,"

She spun around and disappeared into the darkness before anyone could say anything.

"Does she do this often?" Billy asked, an arm over Rebecca's shoulder.

Leon nodded, and turned around, heading out of the room.. Rebecca and Billy followed him, though Rebecca left the room rather reluctantly.

------------------------------------

By the time Wesker managed to get Kylie off of him, Ada and the others were long gone. The 'girl' was unconcious on the floor. Wesker looked down at his clothes. They were shredded, much like his arms and legs were. The little brat had always had it in for him. He was tempted to kill her then and there, but he stopped himself. Grudge against him or not, she was one of the better results of an experiment. And so long as he wasn't around where she could see him, he would be fine, and she would be able to tear through the intruders. She began to stir, and Wesker was quick to leave.

He wondered if having taken some of his blood into her system would do anything to her. If so, it would be an interesting change...To see what the viruses would do when mixed like that. It certainly wouldn't be good news for the STARS and the others. He heard Kylie's wails start up behind him, and winced. His hearing was incredibly good, and her high pitched cries hurt. Though it was an effective method for attracting prey...She got them to go searching for her. And when they found her, she made them pity her, then she enjoyed her dinner. Though it didn't always work. When it didn't and she got hungry enough she would randomly attack anything that moved. And once she had the taste of blood, she went into a blood frenzy. Somewhat like a shark. And she didn't give up until she was rendered unconcious or she had killed something. Had he not been there, she would have kept chasing Ada until she'd eventually caught her.

And she had been close that time. Wesker grinned as another prospect came to mind. The child was like a blood hound when it came to following a scent. She would be after anyone she'd managed to bite or claw. That was mainly the reason she was always after him. Yes...Kylie was a success. The only trouble was she was impossible to control. The Las Plagas, for some reason, had simply died. It hadn't even grown to maturity before it died. All other attempts with the plagas had failed as well, and of course she wouldn't obey a command, though Wesker knew she understood. It was in the way she would do the exact opposite of what she was told to do.

Wesker opened the door to one of the mansions three libraries. The smell of death was much stronger in here...Much stronger. It was obvious why. Three silencers were enjoying a meal on the upper area of the room. One saw him and screamed. Wesker simply smiled, set his shades on the shelf next to the door, and cracked his knuckles. This was going to be a fun fight.

---------------------

Ada was half way to her destination when she suddenly started to turn around and head back the other way. She stopped herself after a few steps. She couldn't turn back now.

"Stop," she told herself, "just stop...They'll be fine. They'll meet up with the others soon enough,"

Though she wasn't fully convinced, she still kept heading in the direction she had been. The lights flickered, and a cold wind blew through a broken window. It whistled eerily, and Ada involuntarily embraced herself, feeling chills run up her spine. The lights went out, save for one, but still, it made it near impossible to see. The one light at the end of the hall was her only guide. A curtain fluttered in the breeze, and Ada bit back a gasp. She spun around when she thought she heard someone behind her. But there was nothing there. Another gust of wind. Though this one didn't seem to whistle...It _whispered_. She could almost hear words in the wind. _Stop! It's not real! You're frightening yourself!_

And indeed she was.

The pitter-patter of bare feet made her spin around again. As before, there was nothing there. Continuing forward, she forced herself not to react to anything. She had been through worse, and yet the wind scared her. It was ridiculous...and yet, somewhat predictable. Maybe those worse things were fueling her imagination now? She couldn't take much more of this though, and she still had a ways to go before she reached that light. But she wasn't going to give in to her fear and run. She would go slowly, and calmly and-

A thud, like a body falling to the floor, sent her sprinting for the light.

----------------------------

Jill watched Chris closely. She was worried about him. Of course, his attitude was to expected, but when Chris was angry or upset, he got careless. And Jill, as much as she hated herself for thinking it, didn't want him to get himself killed over someone else, who was already dead. He hadn't said a word to any one at all, but Phyllis had managed to get a slight smile out of him. Remembering this, Jill felt a sudden rush of jealousy. Seeing her expression, Amber smirked. Jill glared at her. She had decided a while ago that she did NOT like Amber. She might have liked Phyl, but being jealous had kinda ruined that. Tyler, for all that he talked less than Phyllis, was likeable.

Jill trudged along at the rear of the group, not even really noticing how far ahead everyone else was getting. She couldn't help being so slow. It was as if memories were weighing her down, making her move slowly. _I'm sorry Claire...I'm sorry. _

A hand touched her shoulder, making her jump slightly. It was Tyler.

"What?" she asked, not really wanting to talk.

"Everyone's leaving you behind, I thought I'd let you know," he replied, smiling at her.

Jill returned his smile and said, "Probably for the better...I'd just as soon bite every one's head off as talk to them."

It was strange to think that she could be smiling, or joking like this, but she was. _I guess everyone deals with greif in different ways..._ she thought. She sped up slightly, but not enough to catch up with the others comepletely. Tyler walked with her, not saying anything. Though that was the way Jill preferred it at the moment. It wasn't an akward silence, though. Jill kept an eye on the group ahead of her. Chris was actually sayin something to Phyllis, and it seemed to ammuse her. Amber was following a little bit behind them, remaining alert. At first, Jill didn't hear the sound of shuffling feet behind her. Not did the others. but she heard it when she felt- (and smelled)- the zombie's breath on the back of her neck.. Tyler was the first to turn around. He shoved the zombie away, saving Jill from having a chunk of her spine ripped out. She spun around as well, in time to see the creature stumble into the wall.

"Run!" she said, knowing that shooting the zombie would do no good.

They didn't need to be told twice. But no sooner had they shut a door to keep the zombie away from them, than they would have rather faced the zombie. The room they were in was filled with the sickly sweet smell of decay, that made Jill's stomach churn. The sight in front of her made vomit try and creep up her throat. She forced it down, taking in as little of the sour air as possible. There were bodies all over, all of them had obviously been there for quite a while. The skin was bloated, what was left anyway. There were what appeared to be the people's insides on the floor as well. Jill took a step back, and felt something squish under her boot heel. When she looked to see what it was, she had to fight back another wave of nausea. She had stepped on a bit of a rotting heart.

There was a door on the other side of the room, but the closer to the middle of the room you got, the higher the pile of bodies.

Chris sighed, "I guees we have no choice...We don't have ammo to get rid of even the one zombie, and where there's one, there'll be more."

Jill nodded in agreement, though she made a face of disgust at the thought of climbing those bodies. Despite this, she was first to start climbing. She heard sighs of deafeat behind her as the others started to follow suit. The highest part of the pile was probably close to 15 feet tall. But she could easily go around that. It made Jill wonder just how long they had been dumping bodies here, and why. She was half way up when she slipped. She, and several bodies (or part of them, anyway), went tumbling to the floor. Someone caught her, before she finished falling, though she wasn't sure who. She stood, and looked at her rescuer. It was Phyllis.

"Er...Thanks," she said, looking to see how far along the others were.

She went back to climbing when Phyllis didn't answer her. She reached the top this time without falling. She hurried down to meet Chris and Tyler. Amber was coming down, as was Phyllis.

"After this," said Phyl, "I am taking a ten hour shower."

Amber nodded in agreement. As did the rest of them. As Chris headed for the door, Jill suddenly found herself wondering if the climb over the bodies have been a needless thing. What if the door was locked? She didn't let her mind dwell on this for to long. Instead she turned to Tyler.

"Why are all these here?"

"They are old test subjects..." he replied, "Some that died before a virus could take hold, others killed themselves. According to Ada, they've been dumping bodies down here since this place was built. Even when it wasn't used as the main base, it continued. "

Jill asked no more about the bodies. What he'd told her was disturbing enough. All those bodies stacked up like that...Some have been there for years. For some reason this thought made the stench seem even worse, and she choked.

"You okay?" Chris asked, looking back at her.

_No I'm not, Christopher. One of my friends is dead, the others are missing, and I'm standing in a room filled with rotting bodies. _But that was no what she said. Instead she replied, "Yeah...I'm okay."

"Good...'cause we need your lockpicking skills over here...door's locked," he said.

Jill sighed and dug around in her pockets for her lockpick. For a moment she was afraid she'd lost, but she found it buried in her back pocket under and old slip of paper. She went to work on the door, which appeared to be solid oak.

---------------------------------------

Billy and Rebecca sat on one of the balconies. The cool night air was a relief from the smell of death that covered the house. Leon was still inside the room, reading though letters he'd found.

Leon was sitting at an old mahogony desk, skimming through papers. One letter caught his eye;

_Neal,_

_I am sorry I haven't written to you in awhile. The old man had us move to another base on the drop of a dime. I don't know what he's playing at, but I wish he would stop this foolish skipping about. You'd think he was running from something. And maybe he is. Things have not been going well at all. Albert, the one I told you about, is getting worse and worse as well. Always paranoid. It makes it hard to do my job, when he's forever snapping at me. As you know, I have been reporting the actions of my current team to him. So far they don't suspect a thing. I've seen Phyllis Ryan give a few odd looks now and then, but that is just the way Ryan is. Le is the one I worry about, Not about him being suspicious, but about him figuring it out on accident. He follows me everywhere, constantly hounding me. The others of course find it amusing, but I do not. I haven't asked him why he follows me, but I will That is, if he is still alive If Ada wants to continue to go through with her orginal plan, he may very well die. I may as well. For all I know, everyone in this building could be dead by morning. But I intend only to stick around long enough to see Albert kill Ada and the people she intends on leading here. After that, I'm getting out of here. If I can get out by myself, anyway. _

_Things, of course, may not go as planned, so that may not work out so well. _

_I know as you read this, your jaw will drop in surprise at my talking of dying as thought it were nothing. But that is what comes of being a soldier. You have to learn not to look at death as something to fear, but as nothing more than something that happens to everyone. Do I hope to get out alive, yes. Do I think my chances are good? No. I hope to be able to send this before the shit hits the fan, but I may not be able to. If that is the case, than it is pointless to write this, but if I do send it, and I die, at least someone will know what happened to me._

_I have no time left to write. I can hear the others calling for me. Albert wants us to find Ada. I have a good idea where she is, but I haven't told him everything about the team. I want some things to be a surprise for him. It will be quite amusing when I tell him afterwards that the STARS are in the building. _

_I guess this letter may very well be the last contact I ever have with you. I hope that is not the case, but the way things are going...Oh well. Goodbye, Neal. _

_-your sister, Amber_

Leon set the letter back down. So Amber was reporting to Wesker? Somehow, that seemed typical. _Ada doesn't know though...She needs to be warned. _ But that was easier said than done. This place was huge. And he, Billy, and Becky, had only just ventured onto the third floor. And from what Leon had seen from the outside of the place, there were five floors. And he doubted he'd seen all of the first and second floors. He shuffled through the rest of the papers on the desk, but he found nothing more than old opened letters, all adressed to Amber.

Sighing, he called for Billy and Rebecca. Though he hated too They seemed to be enjoying their moment of peace. He couldn't blame them, They had been locked up for nearly 4 months, never getting to see out side. But there would be time enough for that later, when they didn't have to worry about all kinds of creepy crawlies coming after them.

The three headed for the door. They still had alot of rooms to check.

The next room was full of filing cabinets. _Well, here's an information lottery. _ Rebecca thought, looking around. She saw one drawer labelled; Coen, William J., Chambers, Rebecca A. , Birkin, Sherry E.

She opened it and grabbed the file with _Sherry Eileen Birkin _printed on it. She flipped through the many pages in the folder, and finally found the one she was looking for. The experiment records.

_December 14th, 1998:_

_Birkin injected with T-virus. No instant results seen. _

_January 1st, 1999:_

_Still no effects from T-Virus. Maybe a stronger dose._

_January 17th, 1999_

_No effects. Spencer is becoming impatient with us. May have to try G-virus next._

_Febuary 9th 1999:_

_Using G-virus on Birkin today. _

_Later:_

_Nothing. She is cancelling out the viruses we inject her with. Now Wesker is becoming impatient. _

_May 21st, 1999_

_Haven't been recording these. I see no point. Nothing has resulted from the numerous tests and experiments. Using T and G on her today._

_June 10th 1999_

_There has been no effect. Wesker and Spencer are trying to figure out what to do. Preparing another, stronger, dose of the Viruses today. Spencer is considering the progenitor._

Rebecca skipped ahead several pages. These were all old documents. Things she already knew.

_August 5th 2004._

_Running blood tests on Birkin. Wesker thinks her blood can be used for a new virus._

_September 20th 2004_

_Still running blood tests, but Wesker has already started working on this new virus. _

_October 1st 2004_

_They have managed to create the virus. Working out the bugs. Still injecting Birkin with T and G virus._

_October 31st 2004_

_The virus is comeplete. Using it on Birkin today. _

_Later:_

_She is going into convulsions. The virus is trying to mutate her. But her blood is trying to keep that from happening. I've never seen anything like this before... She is being restrained now. She has grown stronger in a way... She killed a man earlier, by just slamming a fist into his chest. _

_November 2nd 2004_

_She is still convulsing. No one can get near her. She has managed to get her arms free. She has killed 2 more men._

_November 21st 2004_

_Birkin is no longer having seizures. I think she is dying now. You can hear her breathing from far away. She sounds as though she has water in her lungs, and she's trying to breathe through it. I almost feel sorry for her._

_December 31st 2004_

_It is amazing that Birkin has survived this long...She is near death now. She looks like a skeleton now...You can see every bone in her body. She hasn't eaten in months, but amazingly she hasn't died of starvation yet. It's scary..._

_Later:_

_Birkin is dead... She died a few hours after my last note. Wesker was not amused. Nor Was Spencer, but there is nothing I can do about that. It was about time the girl died anyway._

Rebecca stopped reading. There were more records after. Tests done further on Sherry's body. But she had no interest in reading those. December...that was the month she and Billy had been captured. So Sherry had died shortly after their arrival.

She sifted through the file labelled _Rebecca Anne Chambers_ and the one labelled _William John Coen_ but found nothing more than what she already knew. That they had been rejecting all the viruses given to them, and that Wesker was planning to use the S-virus on them. Leon and Billy were going through papers across the room, muttering to eachother. Rebecca put the folders back in the drawer, and turned toward the men. She heard something from one of the narrow ailes between the cabinets. Glancing at Leon and Billy, she shut the drawer, and went to inspect the sound. Something was definately moving back there. She peered around the corner to see what was back there, and that was when a blur of red and white crossed her vision, and she felt something collide with her.


	10. Spider's Web

_Chapter Ten: Spider's Web_

_T_yler watched Jill work, waiting for her to say she'd unlocked the door. He glaced up quickly caught sight of Chris looking at him, with his eyes narrowed suspiciously. When Chris noticed that he had been seen, he quickly looked away. Tyler rolled his eyes, and went back to watching Jill.

Chris, when he was sure that Tyler was no longer looking at him, resumed his glaring. He was about to say somehing when Jill stood, and said "There you go, Majesty. The door is open."

Chris looked puzzled at the hint of annoyance her voice, but didn't comment on it. "Thanks," he muttered. And motioned for the others to follow him. Time to be on the move again.

----------------------------------

Krauser grinned as he sliced his way through zombie after zombie. If he place a swing just right he could cut several clean in half as he went. This was a way to entertain himslef as he searched for Leon and Ada. The girl had been just a little entertainment. Something other than zombies. He would have killed the others as well, but the look on the man's face of utter disbelief, and then rage was too hilarious. He had watched from a distance when they thought he was gone. It was all rather amusing. They had left eventually, with one of the women in tears. He'd thought about following them, but had changed his mind after a moment. He would find his targets eventually. For now he could have a little bit of fun.

--------------------------

Where was Spencer's office? She couldn't remember. She had pushed this place out of her mind. It had worked a little to well. She was on the 4th floor. His office had to be here or on the 5th floor. Spencer always made sure his office was on or close to the top floor. She was stilll scolding herself for panicking earlier. Maybe if she stopped, she'd have an easier time remembering.

"Hehehehe!" A child-like laugh sounded behind her.

_It's nothing...just your imagination...Don't look back. Don't look back. _ But the laugh came again, and Ada couldn't help herself. She slowly turned around, butthere was nothing there. _Get a grip. You're going to drive yourself crzy like this! _ She continued on her original path. She ignored the pitter-patter of feet behind her. Ignored the occaisional laugh. All by telling herself she was imgaining it. Finally she couldn't stand it any more. She spun around as fast as she could, and caught sight of a tiny for ducking behind a curtian.

_So she wants to play games huh? Fine. She'll be sorry. the little bitch has started a game she is going to lose. _

-----------------------------

For a moment, Rebecca panicked. She let out a yelp of surprise, and began to try and get away from what ever it was. But when she heard a woman's voice, she stopped. Clutching at her feet was a young brunnette. Her lab coat was torn and bloodstained, though she didn't appear to be injured. Leon and Billy came rushing around the corner just as Rebecca knelt to pull the woman to her feet. A tag on the front of her coat read "A. Rivers"

"Thank God!" she said, "I thought I was the only person left alive in this place! I'm Abigail Rivers."

"I'm-" Rebecca began, but Abigail stopped her.

"Yes, I know who you are. You're Rebecca Chambers, and he's Billy Coen. Not sure who you are though," she added, nodding at Leon.

"Leon Kennedy," he said.

"Were these normal times," said Abigail, "I'd have the guards down here in a second. But since this isn't normal, and since there are no guards left, what say we put out differences aside for now and get out of here?"

All three of them stared at her, shocked. _Well at least she was honest about it_ Billy thought, smirking. Leon glanced at him, as if asking his opinion. He simply shrugged in reply. Rebecca did the same.

Abigail didn't seem to need Leon to tell her their decision. "Well, what're we waiting for? Let's get out of here. The sooner the better. And I know a way out too, I just hadn't gone yet cuz I was alone, and had no way to defend myself.."

"Not so fast," said Leon, "There are more of us. We have to find them before we leave. Any idea where Spencer is?"

"Spencer?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, "why do you want to know?"

"Because that's who Ada was after. We find Spencer, we find Ada."

"Ada...You mean Ada Wong? You mean after all these years she's still holding a grudge against Albert and Spencer? The woman's got problems."

She saw his puzzled expression and began to laugh. She laughed even harder when she saw identical looks on Billy and Becky's faces. It was few minutes before she had herself under control.

"Oh I know about her little Sob Story. You might say Wesker is a family friend. I know who he's killed, who he's employeed, who he's betrayed, ect. I don't think he's ever actually put 2 and 2 together when it comes to Ada, though. i knew who she was the day she showed up. Unlike Albert, I payed attention to things that went on outside of Umbrella," she told them smugly.

---------------------------------------------

Wesker once again wandered through the halls, not really looking for the intruders. He didn't really care at that moment. If a creature killed them, fine. If not, he could kill them when he found them. He was more concerened with who he had seen earlier...Jack Krauser. Krauser hadn't seen him at least, but Wesker had seen him. If Krauser was here to cause trouble, then the STARS were of little importance. He had seen Redfield's body, so Krauser hadn't been keeping to himself all this time.

Thinking about the body, Wesker couldn't help but laugh. It must have torn Chris apart to see his sister dead. And if he hadn't seen her yet, he would, and then it would tear him apart.

---------------------------------

Amber watched and waited for her chance to get away from the group...And her chance came in the form of spider the size of a large dog.

They had stumbled on the hall filled with webs earlier, but there had been several dead ones there. So they had continued, trying not to get stuck in the webs that covered the walls. None of them had heard the spider silently desending on them.

When the giant Black Widow landed on Phyllis, none of them were prepared for her. Amber surprised herself by actually saving her team mate. As the widow lowered herself to bite the struggling woman, Amber shot her, distracting her long enough for Phyllis to get out of the way. The spider let out a sound resembling a hiss, and sped towards Amber as bullets rained down on her. Amber moved out of the way, and the widow turned her attention to Jill.

Seeing her chance to get away, Amber turned away from the fight, ran back down the hall. She had to report to Wesker. She turned the corner, and used her knife to cut the thick sticky webs away from the wall. There was door that they had all missed. But Amber had known it was there. When enough of the wb was gone to open the door, she slipped through. Once inside the room, she busied herselfwith pulling strings of web off of her clothes. She glanced around to make sure of where she was,and saw that she was in the trophy room. Animal heads stared down at her. Boars, deer, antolope, even a rhino. A large bearskin rug was set in front of the fire place. Stuffed raccoons, rabbits, snakes, foxes, birds of prey, and other aninmals were on shelves. Their glass eyes seemed to follow her as she moved forward.

Not paying attention to what was ahead of her, she walked right into one of the larger animals. When she realized what it was, she yelped in surprise,and jumped back. It wasn't an animal. This had to be one of either Spencer's or Albert's sick jokes. In front of her was one of the failed experiments. They had never been given an actual name, but they had been called by the employees "living statues" as they could stand perfectly still, and make their bodies perfectly stiff. They were maybe 6 feet tall when they stretched to their full height. The thing in front of her was one of the last ones ever experimented on. It's large snake-like body was coiled up, it's bird-like head drawn back to strike.

There was something wrong though...Its eyes didn't have that dead look like the glass should have had. And when she had bumped into it, it had been warm instead of cold like it should have been.

Realization dawned on her as the 'dead' creatured moved to strike.

----------------------------------

Abigail, or Abby as she told them to call her, turned out to be more of an annoyance then anything else. She constantly chattered away, not caring if they were listening or not. None of the three had any real idea of what she was going on about, nor did they care.

_I'm gonna put a bullet in her head if she doesn't either shut up, or get eaten soon_, Leon thought, trying his best to block her out. She was as bad as one of his cousins had been. Miranda. She had never shut up either, and it had literally ended up getting her killed. But this was Abby, not Miranda. Finally, he turned to face her,

"Abby...I don't mean to seem rude, but could you _please_ shut the hell up?"

His bluntness stopped her for a moment. Billy and Rebecca snickered at her look of amazement. She looked as if no one had ever said anything rude to her in her life. That, or had never challenged her authority. Without waiting for her to regain her ability to speak, he said in a very sarcastic tone, "Thank you," and continued forward.

She said nothing more, for now at least, though she wore a look that suggested there were quite a few things she wanted to say. But they had an advantage over her. She needed their help. They didn't need hers. If she forced them to leave her behind, she would be helpless against any creatures that might attack her, and she knew it. _Hows it feel to be at the mercy of those you would have had killed? _He wanted to ask, _Huh? How's it feel to be helpless against these creatures that you've created? _But he held his tongue. Turning his anger on her would do no good, though it would have made him feel better. He heard Rebecca scolding her, behind him, but he didn't intervene. He wasn't going to bawl her out, but he wasn't going to help her either.

Billy sped up so that he was beside Leon, "Rebecca's quite a little spitfire when she wants to be," he said in an amused way, as the argument between the women continued.

Leon nodded in agreement, but didn't say anything. In truth, he didn't know Rebecca very well. He had gotten the feeling that she had kept herself out of the loop when it came to Umbrella. Maybe because she had just wanted to forget it and move on with her life. Leon couldn't blame her. He would have liked to do the same. He cast a sidelong glance at Billy. There was something about him, something he kept hidden. But Rebecca trusted him, and for now, that was enough.

A shriek from behind them signaled the arrival of a silencer.

------------------------------

"Where's Amber?" Tyler was the first to ask when the spider was dead, "She was here a moment ago.."

All of them shrugged. They had been to occupied with the now dead arachnid to pay much attention to Amber.

"Amber can take care of herself, Tyler," Phyllis pointed out, "We have to keep going and try to find Ada, Tim, and Justin..."

Tyler sighed, and nodded in agreement. Jill and Chris looked reluctant to say a word either way. Though it was obvious that they wanted to keep looking for their companions. Nothing else was said as they continued, Tyler looking very worried. Jill wondered how he could seem so worried, and not want to go searching for his lost team mate. And Phyllis didn't look as if she cared at all... Not that Jill could blame her much. She didn't care either. She didn't like Amber. Good riddance in her opinion. She grimaced at this thought, she hated to think like that, but she couldn't help it. Something about the woman irked her, and she didn't quite trust her. Though she hadn't quite trusted the others either. But that had changed for now.

By the time they were away from the spider webs, Amber had still not returned. They kept going anyway. Jill wondered just how big this place was. Tyler had told her earlier that there were five floors, but she had not seen another stair case since the one they had taken that had led them to the 4th floor. But then, this place had to be huge, if they had been in there as long as it felt like they had.

And indeed the place was huge. Huge enough for someone to easily get lost and stay that way for hours. If it was their first time there, that is. Phyllis had gotten lost once, and she hadn't enjoyed the experience...She had been in this area of the mansion for hours before she had found the stairs down. The mansion had been empty at that point, and quite eerie from the silence. When she had finally found her way back to the first floor, she had been wandering around for a good 10 hours. She was pulled out of her thoughts when someone ahead of her yelled in surprise. The yell was followed by a loud splash.

Phyllis stifled a laugh. Chris had found the pool.

Both she and Jill knelt down as Chris came to the surface. "Really, Chris, this isn't the time for fun," she said.

He glared at her as he lifted himself from the water. Phyl couldn't see how he'd fallen in. He should have seen the water. She said so.

"He was walking backwards," said Jill, laughing, "I tried to warn him, but he didn't listen. Did you?"

Chris didn't answer either of them. He shook his head as hard as he could, sending water on to both of them. Tyler, at least, avioded getting wet, as he had stood far enough back. Chris stood up, his feet making squelching noises.

"well...So long as there's no more surprises, can we get going?" he asked,starting forward anyway.

"Sure, just don't slip," said Jill, sarcastically, as she too started forward


	11. Bloodshed

_Chapter Eleven: Blood-Shed_

_T_he creature's beak tore through her shoulder, making Amber cry out in pain. It released her for a moment, then prepared to strike again. She rolled out of the way, just in time, and it's face met the floor instead of her. Had she not been injured she probly would have laughed at it. It shook its head, and Amber went as fast as sh could towards the nearest exit. She didn't look behind her to see if it was following her. She didn't need to. She could hear it.

She threw open the door, went through and sleemed it behind her. She started to go forward, but slammed into someone, or something.

She looked up to see Wesker towering over her. He glared down at her at first as though he was going to strike, but when he saw who she was he simply sneered. "What the hell happened to you?"

She stared at him for a moment then said "One of the 'failed' experiments, sir."

He raised a questioning eyebrow at her, "Surely if it was as 'failed' as you say, then it wouldn't have done so much damage," he said casually, "If you don't do something about it, you're going to bleed to death." He didn't sound as if he really cared.

"It was one of the statues, sir." he would know what she was talking about.

"Yes yes, I thought it would be. Spencer wanted one kept around" he said, starting to sound rather bored. "Keep an eye on the STARS. Make sure they don't leave," he said, turning and leaving Amber there, weak and dizzy from blood-loss.

She watched him go. Had she not felt like she was going to fall over at any second, she might have been angry at him. But being angry would do her no good. Her entire left side was drenched in blood, and she was getting dizzier by the second. She forced herself to move forward, trying to stay alert for zombies or other creatures. Her legs seemed to get heavier and heavier with every step. She could feel her conciousness slipping away...She snapped herself to attention, and continued forward.

She didn't hear the slithering behind her, she didn't hear the low hiss, and she barely felt the pain of it's beak and fangs sinking deep into her side.

------------------------------

Ada slammed a fist into the wall. She had gotten herself turned around when trying to get away from Kylie, and now had no clue where to go. The halls all looked the same on this floor, as they were supposed to in order to confuse any new arrivals. She had last been here only a year ago, but she had forgotten the trick to figuring out where you were. She was on the 5th floor by now. Start at the top and work her way down. That's what she'd do to find Spencer.

She looked down at her hand and realized she was bleeding. She looked at the wall for what might have sliced her hand, and saw the jagged lamp globe. She must've hit it when she'd hit the wall. But she'd heard no glass shattering, and there was no glass on the floor...Which meant it had been broken prior to her visit. But Spencer surely would have had it removed. Shaking her had and splattering drops of blood on herself and the wall, she took a closer look. Right under the base of the lamp was a bit of peeling wall paper, another thing wrong. Spencer kept things in perfect order...

She peeled at it, and was surprised to find it came away quite easily. There was writing there. Reading it, she groaned.

_The broken and the whole. Opposites. Yet things can change from one to the other._

_Only when the whole becomes broken and the broken becomes whole will the way be shown._

Spencer and his puzzles. She guessed that she would either find a hidden door or a map... She really didn't want to deal with a puzzle, but she had no choice. But what about the riddle? What to do? Sighing, she went over it again, making sure she had read it right. She had.

_Okay...Whole to broken, broken to whole...The lamp is broken...but I don't have the peices. _

She reached over and ran a finger over the whole globe, and was surprised to find that the top moved a bit at her touch. _That was easy..._

Ada carefully ulled the upper section of the lamp globe off, and placed it on the top of the broken one. It fit perfectly, but nothing happened. Until she listened and realized something was ticking. It sounded like a timer.

_Dammit...This isn't gonna be good..._

Trying to ignore the ticking (which was getting faster by the second) she took a closer look at the lamp. The engraved roses on it appeared to match up at first, but she realized they didn't quite fit together. The ticking was starting to annoy her now. over the thirty seconds it had been going, it had tripled in speed and volume. She fiddled with the separate peice of glass, trying to see if she could get it to match. The glass was slippery in her bloody hands, and she nearly dropped it once.

The ticking stopped abruptly, making Ada jump.

It was seeing Phyllis and turning her head that saved her life.

----------------------------------

Abby heard the Silencer and instantly ducked down. The ball of saliva she had known was coming missed her, and went over her head.

She heard it splatter on the floor in front of her, and made a face of disgust. She got up and was prepared to run, but the Silencer was in front of her before she got no more than a few feet. It lashed out with a claw and caught her across she mouth and stopped her scream with the blood that flowed into her throat. A second creature occupied the others.

It had given up brains, and now used only brawn. It slashed at them with claws, and its tailed whipped back and forth with its stinger. Bullets seemed to have little effect on it, but there was nowhere to run. All the doors were locked, and a dead end was up ahead, they were trapped.

Billy took careful aim on the creature, and pulled the trigger. It screamed as the bullet peirced through one of its eyes. It shook its head, spraying blood all over the place. It clawed at its head trying to get the source of pain out, but it succeeded only in clawing the other eye. Screaming even louder it tossed its entire body back and forth, until finally it slammed into the railing and broke through it. There was a loud thud as it collided with the 4th floor.

Rebecca and Leon had their hands full with the second one. It didn't seem to be interested in Abby. All it was interested in was killing them.

"Shoot the eyes!" Billy shouted to them, and saw Leon nod at him.

Both Rebecca and Leon hit the thing's eyes, and it thrashed about just as the first one had. For a moment Billy thought they'd won, until he heard Rebecca shreik in pain.

---------------------------------------

Tyler paced back and forth with worry. First Amber, then Phyllis. Once again they had been caught offguard, and Phyllis had gotten separeated from them. Both Jill and Chris sat silently, watching him. He was muttering to himself wondering where either of the women might have gone off too.

"Tyler..." said Jill.

No reply. He just kept pacing.

"Tyler!"

"What, Jill!?" Tyler snapped back.

"Running a hole in the floor won't help you find them."

Tyler sighed. She was right of course. He stopped pacing and leaned against the wall. They had back tracked and found a door they had previously missed. It was Spencer's trophy room, and it was a very creepy room. It was also very dark. Tyler moved forward and heard the carpet make a squelching noise beneath his feet. The carpet was wet, and he had a pretty good idea of what.

"Guys?"

They were next to him in a flash. The blood was in a trail leading to one of the doors out of the room. It wasn't even shut all the way. They had to do nothing more then push on it to open it. This room was brightly lit, making the sight before them all the worse. Blood was all over the otherwise perfect white walls and floor. The body in the middle of the room had been ripped apart. What was unmistakeably internal organs were torn out. Whatever had killed the person had only wanted fun, not food. Tyler slowly approached the upper half of the body. He could read the embroidered name, or what was left of it, on the tattered clothing. All that was left was; _er Davis. _ But the full name may as well have been there...Amber.

A hissing sound caught his attention. Whatever had killed Amber wasn't satisfied with just her. He looked over his shoulder, and saw one of the old experiments approaching Jill and Chris. It was covered in blood. But it didn't keep going for long. The 'man' they had seen earlier dropped down on it, slicing it cleanly in half. He watched the writhing body for a moment with what seemed to be disappointment. He had obviously hoped for more of a challenge.

Chris stared in disbelief at his sister's murderer. He was there, right in front of him. But the question was; could Chris hope to beat him? The men looked up at him, and grinned maliciously.

"Still want revenge for that girl?" He taunted, "Or are you going to back down?"

Chris ignored Jill's hands wrapping around his arm, trying to hold him back. The bastard was going to die one way or another.

"Heh," said the man looking at his blade-arm, "I can easily beat you without this." In a flash the blade was gone and he was left with two normal arms.

Chris shoved Jill off of him. Though with more force then he had intended. But that didn't matter at the moment. The man easily dodged the punch Chris threw at him, and before Chris could try to strike again, he felt a fist being driven into his stomach. He heard Tyler and Jill arguing with one another. Tyler was telling Jill to shoot, but Jill dindn't want to hit Chris. That was of little importance. He hit the man squarely in the face, and felt bone breaking beneath his fist. He'd managed to break his nose.

-----------------------------------

Wesker watched all of them on the security monitors. Krauser was fighting Redfield, while Valentine and Matheson watched. Kennedy, and Coen had their hands full with Chambers. She appeared to be wounded.

He saw Kylie wandering the halls. She had previously been chasing Ada, but Ada had either outsmarted her, or had gotten lost. But the little girl was enjoying herself either way. She seemed to enjoy toying with the zombies. This was obvious now, as she snuck up behind one, and bit into the back of its knee. When it was one the floor, she enjoyed her meal. Despite himself, Wesker had to admit, she was an evil little bitch.

He searched the monitors for Ada and Ryan, but he couldn't see them. They had to be on the fifth floor. Spencer didn't allow security cameras up there. That was one thing that puzzled Wesker. Surely that would be the floor that had the most security, but no, that floor had an over abundance of traps and puzzles, something that annoyed Wesker. That had always annoyed him. Spencer's love of traps and riddles severely got on his nerves.

---------------------------------

Just as Ada turned toward Phyllis, she felt a sharp pain across her cheek, and then in her ear. "Ah! Fuck!" She yelled.

A foot long spike had suddenly protruded from the wall. Had she not turned her head, she would have had it between her eyes. As it was, she had a hole in her ear, and gash across her face.

Phyl turned to see what the noise was, and saw Ada. "The hell? What happened?"

Ada clenched her teeth as the spike retracted, and removed its self from her ear. "What happened is Spencer has this floor booby trapped," she answered, putting a hand to the side of her face, and pulling it away to find it now stained with blood. "He's got a damned trap on a way out."

"That's Spencer for you," said Phyl, "But you'd think he'd put one less fatal...just in case,"

"Not Spencer, he-" Ada said, then stopped, "Wait, where are the others? Have you seen them?"

Phyllis nodded, "I was with Chris, Jill, Tyler and Amber. Amber disappeared, and shortly after Chris found the pool, we were attacked by a horde of zombies, and I got separated from them."

"That happens alot in this place," Ada muttered, and placed her hand to her ear, wincing at the feeling of the inch-round hole that was now there. "That'll take awhile to heal..." she added.

"What were you doing anyway?"

"Just come here and read this."

Phyl looked at Ada as if she were crazy, but after a moment she came to see what Ada was talking about.

------------------------------

The Silencer followed it's partner to the 4th floor, and Rebecca barely managed to keep herself from joining them. The Silencer's tail had caught her in the chest, though the gash wasn't deep, just long. The rip in her shirt stretched all the way across the span of her chest., and Billy figure the gash was as long as the rip.

She pushed herself to her feet, leaned against the nearest wall, breathing heavily. Though neither of the men could blame her.

"Are you okay?" Billy asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I've been better," Rebecca gasped, "But I'm okay...I guess. I just hope that that thing isn't venmo-" before she could finish the word, she doubled over, choking. She stood back up for a moment, but before she could even take a breath, her eyes took on an oddly far away look, and she slumped to the floor.


	12. Chaos

_Chapter Twelve: Chaos_

_J_ill watched in horror as Chris and the other man fought. Despite the fact that Chris seemed to be doing well, something told Jill that the man was holding back, trying not to kill Chris before he'd had his fun.

Tyler grew tired of standing and doing nothing, it seemed, for he suddenly took aim with his rifle. Jill was about to tell him not to shoot, when he pulled the trigger. The man went backwards, hand over his eye.

"Nice shot," Jill said, and meant it.

Tyler nodded, though he didn't look as if he'd really heard what she said. He was to busy with watching the fighting men. Well, previously fighting men. Chris was doubled over, gasping for air, and the other was still holding his eye, blood seeping through his fingers. Chris' face took on a slightly triumphant look as he straightened, and headed for the man, pure hatered in his eyes.But he didn't get the chance to strike. His opponent saw him coming in time to move, and fast, so all Chris hit was air.

By the time he regained his balance, the man was gone.

-----------------------------

"So you're sure that that's what you're supposed to do?"

"Yes, Phyl, I'm sure."

"You really should have taken more time to match the pattern you know.."

That one got now answer. Mostly because Ada knew she was right. They had checked all the lamps in the particular hallway, and has found that all of them came apart, which made their job even harder. Both of them strained to see if the patterns on the glass matched up _before_ they put the pieces together, and in the dim light, that was difficult.

"remind me to never touch another puzzle again after this," Ada muttered.

Phyllis smiled breifly in amusement and nodded. She couldn't blame Ada for saying something like that. Right then, she probably would have made the same statement. But she loved puzzles, so she probably wouldn't stick to it.

"Here it is!" Ada said, finally.

"You sure?"

"Sure as we're standing in the lab, Phyl."

"Then try it."

Ada placed the upper half of the globe on to the lower, and both of them stepped back quickly. An audible click preceeded the movement of the wall.

-----------------------

Billy caught Rebecca before she hit the floor. He heard Leon come up behind him, and heard him ask what was going on, but the panic bell going off in Billy's head kept him from answering. Dread caused rational thought to disappear when Rebecca didn't open her eyes.

Then he noticed that she was breathing. Just barely, but she was breathing. He was so relieved he almost dropped her.

"Billy?" Leon asked nervously, "Is she...?" he let the question trail off.

"No...she's alive, for now anyway, but we have to move quick. I'm guessing it's poison at work here," Billy said, knowing his relief was obvious in his voice, and not caring.

"Where to?"

"Basement...that's where Ada said they did the research..."

Leon nodded as Billy scooped the unconcious Rebecca up. It was going to be up to Leon to watch their backs. They travelled back the way they had come, though they still kept an eye out for any monsters. Just because zombies couldn't open doors was no reason to be careless. Things were going farily well, considering the situation, until Leon tried to open a door, and pulled back, with a yell of pain, his hand bleeding profusely.

---------------------------

Blood seeped from Krauser's eye as he watched Wesker. Wesker knew someone was watching him, but not who, that much was clear. The constant tapping as blood fell from his face made it impossible to keep quiet, but for some reason, Wesker hadn't found where he was. That in its self was a miracle. Though Krauser didn't care much.He wanted him dead, and that was all. Though he needed to find the best course of action. While nothing else was much of a match for him, Wesker would be. So what to do tro ensure that he won? That would be a surprise attack. But now was not the time to do it...he needed a better area to attack..so he would have to wait, be paitent and wait.

---------------------------

"Damn it!" Chris shouted, kicking the wall in frustration, "fucking coward."

Jill didn't try to say anything to him. She knew anything she said would only make his anger and disappointment worse. He rounded on Tyler, his intention clear. But Jill stepped between them.

"Jill," Chris began in a warning tone.

"Christopher Micheal Redfield, fighting amongst ourselves will not solve anything. Tyler was trying to help, and had I not been so worried that I would hit you, I would have done the same. That man could have easily killed you at any point in time, so Tyler just saved your life."

Neither of the men said a word...they just stared at her. Chris was obviously stunned at the commanding tone in her voice, and Tyler, in his typical fashion, just didn't speak much. After a moment Chris spoke.

"You're right Jill, I'm sorry."

Tyler simply nodded, though he had nothing to apologize for. Jill stepped away from them, watching Chris closely. Neither of them made any attempt to move towards the other, so she relaxed. "Now, can we get going please? This room is not a very pleasant place to be."

"None of this place is "pleasant" Tyler muttered, heading for the door oppostie from the one they'd come through Jill didn't disagree with him, nor did Chris. Without a second glance back, they left the bloody room behind them.

--------------------------------

Ada backed away as the wall slid out of place, revealing a long dark tunnel that looked as if it hadn't been used in years. There was a thick curtain of cobwebs blocking their veiw into the tunnel about 5 feet in. Phyllis stepped in, and used her knife to knock the webs away.

"Got a flashlight?" She called back to Ada, who nodded, and dangled the small 8-light LED flashlight she kept with her.

"But I ain't got any batteries for it,"

"I can fix that...The light in mine broke earlier, so the batteries are still good," She tossed her flash light to Ada, who almost dropped it, when it slipped through her blood-soaked hands.

As quickly as she could she switched the batteries, and clicked the light on. Unfortunately she had it pointed at Phyl's eyes.

"Hey! Watch where you're pointing that thing. Them little bastards are bright enough to blind you for life."

Ada switched the direction of the beam. Phyl was right, they _were_ extremely bright. She had made the mistake of looking right at one. She had been blind for a good 10 minutes. The light revealed nothing ahead of them but dust and spider webs. Ada had no clue where this led but it had been there for awhile, obviously, unless someone had gone through the trouble to make it look old. But that was doubtful. She and Phyllis proceeded carefully, not wanting to run into any surprises. Though Ada doubted that any creatures had gotten in here, unless they had been placed there, which she wouldn't put past Spencer.

Ahead of them, something moved, and Ada cringed. She should have kept thoughts like that pushed to the back of her mind...Something always went wrong.

-----------------------------

Leon twisted the doorknob, gun at the ready, but as he turned the it, he felt his flesh being sliced, and blood flowing from his hand. He pulled back with a yell, looking at his hand. The skin was in shreds. He looked at the door just in time to see four small blades retract into the metal.

"What the fuck?" 

"What? What happened?" Billy asked him, looking at the blood on the door knob, and on Leon's hand.

"They have the damn place set up with traps...There's little razors blades or something in the fuckin doorknob," Leon explained.

Billy gave the door a disgusted look, as if it were the door's fault. "I HATE this place.," he said, shifting Rebecca in his arms to get a better grip on her. Her skin had lost what little color it had left, so she was pale enough that someone might have assumed she was dead, and her skin was cold as well, yet she was still breathing, though just barely. _Cold as death_ He thought, as Leon ripped a strip of fabric off his shirt, and wound it around his hand. They had to figure out how to get past this. Billy had the feeling Becky wouldn't last much longer, and this was the only way back to the lower floors.

Leon thought for a moment, and kicked the door as hard as he could, hitting it right above the knob. Hopefully he could knock it loose, or get the door open. But that route had been thought out as well it seemed, since when he started to pull his foot back, what looked like sword blades protruded from the doorframe. He managed to move just in time.

"Looks like we have to use brains, not brawn," said Billy, struggling to remain calm. 

Leon nodded at him as the blades retracted. "Whoever built this place likes sharp things..."

Billy made no reply. He simply stared at the door, thinking hard on how to get it open. 'Take Rebecca for a moment," he said, surprising Leon.

"what?"

"Take her for a moment...One of us has to open the damn thing, and it ain't gonna be the one who's watching our backs," Billy replied, "Your hand's already damaged enough. Any more, and you won't be able to hold a gun straight."

Leon sighed, but he took Rebecca from Billy, surprised at how light she was. Though she had been starved, so that wasn't to much of a shock. Billy gripped the knob, and turned, wincing as the blades tore through his hands. But he didn't pull his hand away. With a dull click, the door opened.

-----------------------------

_Well, isn't this just perfect?_ Chris thought, staring ahead. The Stalker was back, and he was hungry. And the Stalker was only one of their worries. Zombies, and lots of them, were closing in from behind. In short, they were screwed.

"Any ideas would be great guys..." Jill said, watching both threats.

"Sorry Jill...My idea well went dry the second I saw big and ugly over there," Tyler said, pointing at the Stalker.

"Same here," said Chris.

Jill bit her lip in frustration. What were they gonna do? That was when she saw the hole in the wall. It would be a tight squeeze, but they could fit. She grabbed both men by the backs of their shirts and drug them with her, heading for the hole. Both of them let out something like a yelp of surprise that was cut off when the fabric was pulled tight on their throats. Chris shoved her off first, but before he could speak, he saw what she had, and kept his mouth shut. Jill shoved him forward, gesturing for him to go first.

Chris shook his head, "No, you first."

"We don't have time to argue!" both Jill and Tyler said at the same time, but Jill continued, "Chris, go!"

When he still didn't move, she raised her voice. "Christopher! Now!"

He sighed and squeezed through the hole, and Jill prayed the other side was safe, because the Stalker was close now, and it would be hard enough to get away from it. What would happen on the other side?


	13. Solutions

_Chapter Thirteen: Solutions_

_A_da heard Phyl's sharp intake of breath when she too noticed the movement. But either it was to far ahead to see, or there was a turn in the tunnel somewhere. The latter was the case. Around the bend stumbled a rather shrivelled looking zombie. Half of one arm was missing, and the hand from the other. It wasn't one of the super-zombies, but a "normal" one. It had obviously been there for awhile, as the missng arm and hand served as evidence that it had eaten its self.

"How long you reckon he's been down here?" Phyl asked her, as there was no threat from zombie right then.

Ada shrugged in response. "From the way it looks: months."

"Why would it be down here?"

Another shrug, "Possibly Spencer had him in here to catch anyone who found this, and never bothered to replace him. He wouldn't do a damn bit of good like he is now."

"That's true...let's put him out of his misery," Phyl replied, and drew her gun. She hit the zombie squarely in the head, and it dropped with a moan. 

"Let's hope there aren't any of the other zombies down here.."

------------------------------------------

Billy let go of the knob as soon as he heard the door open. He looked down at his hand, wincing. He was gonna have a hell of a scar, that was for sure. He turned to Leon.

"Well...it's open." he said, doing the same thing Leon had done earlier; ripping off a bit of fabric from his clothes to wrap around his hand. The fabric was soaked with blood in a matter of seconds. "Alright, I can take Rebecca back...We just need to hurry. She doesn't look like she'll last much longer."

Leon nodded in agreement, and let Billy take the small woamn from his grip. He was right, she didn't look like she'd last much longer. He skin was no longer cold, but feverish, and her whole body trembled. They set off again, keeping a sharp eye out for any company. Leon dreaded trying to open any doors, after the trap they had discovered. _I'll probly laugh at myself later..._ He thought, sighing with relief when he found that the next door was already open partially, and only had to be pushed open.

By the time they'd gotten to the third floor, Billy's arms were starting to ache. Despite the fact that she was light, the weight was starting to get to him. But he wawsn't going to rest. Not even for a moment. It was partially his fault that Rebecca was here. She had been caught because she had thought he was in trouble.

"Oh look.." said Leon, "Stairs."

"That's a good thing...The more we go down, the closer we are to the basement,"

"True. Though I'm not looking forward to going back up. You'd think, that in a place this big, they'd have elevators, but nooo, it's all stairs,"

"Well, maybe we won't have to go back up," Billy points out, "We may run into everyone else and just be able to leave...personally that's my choice."

Leon shrugged. He doubted that would happen. If Abby had been right, Ada was up on the 5th floor...and who knew where Chris and the others were, if they were still alive.

----------------------------------------

Jill squeezed through the small opening just in time. She barely escaped the zombie reaching for her. A large claw followed her in, but the rest of the Stalker wouldn't fit. It screamed at them, staring at them through one gold eye, then turned, and grabed on of the zombies instead, ripping it to pieces. Seemingly out of spite, it threw one of the arms through the hole. The body part hit Chris, splattering him., and the others with blood. In surprise and disgust all three of them back away from the hole.

"Well, thanks for the gift!" Chris muttered sarcastically, wiping blood off of himself.

"Be thankful that's not your arm," Tyler told him, and procceeded to inspect their surroundings.

Jill did the same. The room they were in didn't appear to have a door, something that disturbed her. The walls were dark green, the carpet; lime green. Except for the blood from the arm, the room was clean. There was a long table at one end of the room, though there was nothing on it. At the other end was a smaller table, this one wasn't bare. There were many small, flat peices of metal, all in different shapes. Jill had a sneaking suspicion what they were going to be for. A closer look at the second table told her she was right. They had found a puzzle, and if they wanted out, they'd have to solve it.

She picked one of the pieces up, and found that it have been stuck to the table with something. She winced as she heard gears whirring, and a steady ticking...They were being timed. And she didn't want to find out what happened if they didn't finish in time.

------------------------------------------

Phyllis began to wonder if they'd ever get out of this tunnel...They had been in there for a good hour now, and still hadn't found the way out.

"How much longer can this thing go on for?" she finally asked, out of breath, and drenched in sweat. It was hot in there, and she had a hard time with closed in spaces.

"I don't know," Ada replied, "But I hope not much longer...look on the bright side, there's no turn-offs or anything, so we can't get lost, if we find a dead end, we just turn around and go back, no big deal."

"Lemme rest for a few then," Phyl said, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. Ada did the same, using her flashlight to check her watch as she did so. Six a.m. _Hm...only 12 hours...feels longer then that _ She thought. She jumped, feeling something on her hand and looked down. There was a small spider on her fingers. Not wanting to harm it, but not wanting to leave it there, she brushed it off, and nudged it away from her with the flashlight, careful not to squish it. Spiders were okay, as long as they weren't on her.

Phyllis sighed, and stood up, "well, may as well get moving," she said.

Ada nodded and stood. "Let's go"

-------------------------------------------

Finally, they had reached the basement. Billy just hoped it was in time. Rebecca had stopped trembling, but her skin was getting even hotter, and her breath came in short irregular gasps. Now they had to find the proper room.

"Billy! Over here!" Leon called from up ahead.

Billy jogged to catch up to him. The room Leon had found was a mad scientists paradise. One wall was lined with glass cabinets, which were filled with chemical upon chemical, another was lined with filing cabinets, probably for the creatures and chemicals. The third wall was lined with various computers and microscopes, and other things Billy couldn't begin to name. There was a table in the middle of the room, that was thankfully clear. Billy set his dying charge on the table and began searching through the files in the cabinets. Leon didn't join him right away, and Billy turned to find out what was taking so long. He didn't like what he saw. Rebecca was convulsing now. Billy rushed to hold her down.

"Leon, find the files on the Silencers, fast!"

Leon nodded and began tearing through the papers, as Billy struggled to restrain the convulsing girl. Billy clenched his teeth, holding Rebbecca firmly. _Don't let it be too late...don't let it be too late..._

"I found it!" Leon said, holding up a folder. He began to go through it, searching through the papers, mumbling to himself as he read. He grabbed one paper, and began searching through the glass cabinets, reading labells on vials. "Shit!...I was never much of a chemist," he muttered, but he kept up his search. He grabbed a vial filled with a reddish-brown substance.

"Oh thank god!" he said, "I was afraid there wouldn't be any..."

He set the vial down, and began digging through the bottom cabinets that held syringes and needles. Billy didn't watch the rest of what he was doing, he was focused on Becky. She wasn't as bad now, but Billy didn't think that was a good thing...  
Leon came into a veiw, the paper, and the syringe with the anti-venom in his hands..."I'll warn you..." he said solemly, "This says if someone's been poisoned for 2 hours or more, there's a chance it'll be to late..."

"Just inject her...Quick," said Billy, though he couldn't keep the worry out of his voice, and he couldn't help but wince when the needle peirced Rebecca's flesh...It had been more then 2 hours since she'd been poisoned.

--------------------------------

"Try slanting it a bit more..." said Tyler, as he struggled with his own bit of metal.

"It doesn't fit Tyler, that's all there is to it," Chris snapped.

The second table had indentions on it, that matched the peices of metal from the first. Jill didn't know how they were going to finish it in time, not when they started arguing every few seconds. Well, Tyler and Chris did. She kept her mouth shut as she shuffled through piece after piece of metal. Finally she found one that fit in the indention in front of her. There were more peices then there were holes. Jill guessed it was to make it even more difficult. They had half of them filled in already, and the ticking was getting faster and faster.

"Got it!" Said Chris, successfully fitting a piece in. He instantly began digging through the pieces that Jill had pulled off the other table. Looking for one that matched the next hole.

The ticking was extremely fast now, as all three of them searched for the last piece...just one more and they'd have it complete... "Found it!" Jill cried, placing the last peice of the puzzle. The ticking abruptly stopped, and all of them breathed a sigh of relief. Stepping back, Jill realized that the puzzle had spelled out "Death awaits" in uneven, broken letters. A thud signaled the revelation of their escape route, though, and kept her from thinking what it might mean.

A section of wall fell out from the farthest wall, revealing a room that radiated with a faint orange glow, meaning it was probably lit by torches or a fire place.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." said Tyler, in a very dry way.

"shh," said Chris, "Every time someone says that, something goes wrong."

Tyler shrugged, and entered the room, looking around. Jill followed him in. The orange glow was caused by fire, as she'd thought. A fire place. Several of them actually. This room was blood-red all the way around, and empty. There was a door on the far side. but Jill could see that there was a padlock on it. _ Time for lockpicking I guess._

Then, after a few moments, she spoke aloud.

"Hmm. Large empty room, cryptic message reading 'death awaits'...any one else see anything wrong with this picture?"

Chris laughed at her, then realized she was was serious. Not wanting to dwell on it, he changed the subject, "Reckon you can pick that lock?"

"Honey, I can pick any lock you choose to throw at me," she replied, "But first we need to see if there's anything hidden here..."

----------------------------------

Krauser had found the perfect opprotunity. It was now or never to attack. He dropped form his hiding place, landing silently behind Wesker. He drew back his arm, and prepared to strike, but as he sent his fist forward, Wesker turned, and grabbed his arm, twisting it. Krauser felt the bone snap as Wesker began to laugh at him. A cold laugh, that let Krauser know he was in for it.


	14. Sacrifices

_Chapter Fourteen: Sacrifices_

_R_ebecca went limp when the liquid entered her blood-stream, and Billy wait for her to open her eyes, or make a noise, or something to let him know she was alive. But she remained still. He let go of her shoulders and looked away...they were too late it seemed.

"Billy, I...I'm sorry," said Leon.

Billy shook his head, It wasn't Leon's fault...it was Umbrella's. And his, for not keeping a closer eye on her. Both of them heard the moan, and the rustle of clothes as something moved. Billy felt a hand on his shoulder, and drew his gun, and turned, fully prepared to shoot the zombie that had been Rebecca...

And he found himself looking into perfectly human eyes. Though blood-shot, not the milky-white that was the zombies' eyes. Both he and Leon stared at her in shock, and the girl, confused, gave them an odd look, and started to speak.

"What's the matter? You look like you-"

She didn't get to finish before she found herself being crushed in a hug.

------------------------------

Finally! A way out. Ada and Phyl had finally found their way out of the tunnel. Light seeped in through cracks in the trapdoor they'd discovered. Ada turned off her flashlight, and pushed the door upward. Dust and spiders rained down on her and Phyl. Her skin crawled from the feeling of their legs, but she sill pushed the door up. It didn't seem to want to open all the way. She slammed on it with her hand. Bad idea. More spiders came down. Only then did it occur to her that there was an abnormal amount of the creatures. She let the door fall back into place, shaking her head, and brushing them off of her.

"Hey! Watch it!" said Phyl, trying to sheild herself, "You're throwing them on me."

"Sorry Phyl...I have the feeling we don't want to know what's in that room..."

"Don't tell me you're afraid of a few spiders," Phyl replied, and shoved on the door, this time it flew open.

A wave of spiders came through the opening. There was enough to fully cover several people. Phyllis screamed as they swept over her, biting her. She tried to knock them off, but to no avail. Ada backed into the wall, helpless. She couldn't shoot, or she'd hit her friend, but if she didn't, the spiders would kill her. 

A shriek of agony from Phyl made up her mind. She knew what the venom from these spiders would do to someone. She raised her gun, blinking rapidly. She could see Phyl's eyes through the mass of bugs, widened in fear and pain, and when she saw and understood what Ada was going to do, something like shock and maybe relief. 

"I'm sorry, Phyl...I'm so sorry," Ada said, squeezing her eyes shut, turning her head away, and pulling the trigger.

------------------------------------

"Lock is off," said Jill, "Now where's the nasty trap to kill us?"

"Don't talk like that, Jill," Chris scolded, touching her shoulder, "Even if it's in sarcasm. We're getting out of here."

Jill smiled slightly at him, and nodded. She turned to Tyler, who was inspecting every inch of the walls, "Hey, Tyler, what's behind this door?"

He didn't answer her with any more then a shrug, and continued his search. Chris shook his head, sighing, and opened the door. There was the nasty trap to kill them. Or trap them at least. A gate dropped down around the door. The ends were pointed, and very obviously sharp. Chris, being where he was, was unharmed by them, but Jill felt one tip go into her shoulder and push her down. She cried out in pain as the steel beared down on her. Tyler ran to them, and he and Chris started trying to push the gat back up, but it continued going down.

"Chris, there's gotta be something to raise the gate in the room, find it, quick, I'll keep this up as long as I can," said Tyler, to Jill he said, "I know this is going to hurt, Jill, but try to pull yourself off, and slip out if you can."

Chris looked at Tyler and nodded, and went to find anything to move the gate. He winced when he heard Jill scream as she tried to pull herself off of the metal. _I'm not losing someone else. _ He thought, searching the walls and bricks around the fireplaces, _Not anyone else, and I'm certainly not losing Jill. Not now. _Another scream from Jill, and a frustrated yell from Tyler ans the gate further progressed to the floor made Chris speed up his search, though he made sure to miss nothing. _I won't lose her. I won't let her die. _

--------------------------------

Rebecca returned Billy's hug.

"We thought you were dead," said Leon.

"What happened?" said Rebecca when Billy released her, "All I remember is telling Billy I was fine...that's it."

"You were poisoned by that thing," said Billy, "We came back down here to see if we could find an antidote...And we were afraid it was too late. "

Rebecca nodded, and tried to stand, but her legs fell out from under her, and she fell towards Billy. He caught her and held her upright. She nodded at him in thanks, and balanced herself, though she still couldn't stand on her own.

"Can we get out of here and fine everyon else?" Leon asked, looling nervous.

Both Becky and Billy nodded at him. Billy headed for the door, helping Rebecca along. Leon followed them. He was still going to have to watch out for them. With Billy helping Rebecca, he wouldn't be able to shoot anything fast enough. He shook his injured hand, it was starting to itch, along with the stinging. He'd definatley need it looked at when they got out of here. Otherwise he'd lose his hand.  
They worked their way back up to the frist floor, Rebecca all the while being helped along.

Rebecca tried to walk on her own, but every time she tried, Billy would have to catch her. Her legs weren't wanting to work. She could move them to a small degree, but if she tried to stand, she'd collapse. She hated having to depend on someone else to keep her safe, but she had no coice for now. Her whole body ached, as if she was bruised all over. And the last time her head had felt like this was when she'd caused a frying pan to fall on it when she was a child. She winced as pain flared in her skull again. Okay, so maybe this was worse then the frying pan. She stumbled when she felt the sudden urge to vomit, and Billy wasn't able to catch her this time.

Leon heard retching ahea, and hurried to catch up to Billy and Becky, and saw Billy helping a weary looking Rebecca up.

He took a glance at the papers he had taken from the lab, and looked back at them, "Puking like that is a good thing, Becca. Means the antidote fully worked, and it's trying to get the poison out of your system."

Becky was about to answer when she felt more vomit work it's way up. She managed to turn away from Billy just in time to save him from being covered in puke. She didn't bother to continue with what she'd been about to say when she could speak again.  
"Let's just get out of here."

------------------------------

Krauser winced in pain, but he made no noise.

"Well well well. Jack Krauser," Wesker said, smiling at him. A cold unpleasant smile. "I was under the impression that you were dead."

Krauser stood back up, his arm hanging limply at his side. This was going to be difficult. If it had been a simple matter of putting the bone back into place, he could have done that easily. But the bone was snapped in half. It would take a few minutes before the bone healed its self back up. He didn't reply to Wesker. Instead he circled him, as he felt the virus already healing his arm. Wesker stood eerily still, moving only his head as he watched Krauser with shaded eyes. He calmly pulled the shades off, revealing odd, almost serpent-like yellow eyes, that were starting to turn red. He tossed the shades aside, not even looking to see where they landed. Powerful or not, Krauser knew he ws in for a tough fight when it came to Wesker. But he was sure he could win.

"Sorry to disappoint," Krauser said, finally.

Wesker smirked at him, and lightning fast he kicked at Krauser's leg. This time Krauser did yell. Wesker's foot connected with his kneecap, and his knee bent backwards. He went to the floor instantly, and Wesker continued to smirk. Gritting his teeth, Krauser pulled his leg back into place with his good arm. It went back to normal with a loud snap, and he stood up. Though he didn't put all of his weight on that leg. Wesker was toying with him. Maybe he had been too over confident..Maybe this wasn't a good idea.

Before he could move again, a loud scream echoed through the room. The Stalker was hungry, and it had found something to eat.

-----------------------------

"Hurry Chris!," Tyler shouted, his voice strained. Muscles bulged in his arms as he tried to keep the gate up.

Jill tried to do as Tyler had asked, and get herself off, and crawl out, but the lower she went, the less there was holding the gate up, so it went down with her. And every time the metal reburied its self in her flesh, a new wave of pain an nausea swept over her, causing her to cry out.   
Chris didn't reply. Tyler shouted at him to hurry every few seconds. It wasn't the man's shouts that sped Chris' search up, but Jill's cries. On his way to the next fire place, he tripped on a loose brick, bloodying his nose when it hit the floor. He looked at what he'd tripped on, and pulled at the brick. Underneath the brick was a small switch. Gritting his teeth, he pushed it, and hoped he hadn't just killed them. Another sharp cry from Jill made him sure he had, but when he turned around, Jill was in a heap on the floor, the gate was going back up, and Tyler was leaning againt the wall, out of breath.

Chris wiped the blood off of his face with his sleeve, and ran to Jill, who was also out of breath. Blood ran from the wound in her shoulder, and her face was tear streaked. Chris knelt beside her, and careful not to harm her, he hugged her tight. At first he was a tad bit hurt when she pushed him away slightly. But the hurt disappeared when she kissed him. He kissed her back . All those years of never saying anything to her caught up to him in the blink of an eye. She had almost died. What would he have done then? They broke the kiss when Tyler cleared his throat impatiently behind them. Chris saw him looking at them with something like jealousy, but he put the thought out of his mind.

He helped Jill to her feet, and looked into the room they had opened the door to before the gate had tried to stop them.

What Chris saw made him wish he and Jill had ignored Tyler.

A small girl sat in the middle of the room, playing with the insides of a Silencer, and several zombies. She was talking to herself in what was half words, half 3-year-old gibberish. She realized she was being watched, and she dropped her toy, which Chris was pretty sure was a heart. She wiped her tiny hands on the front of her 'clothes' though they were so blood soaked, it did not good. The blood dripped from the ends of her almost white hair, from the ends of her robe, and from her fingers. Her tiny feet were crimson with blood. He heard Jill gasp next to him, and he heard Tyler mutter something that sounded like "shit,"

Chris couldn't blame him. The girl stepped out of the pile of bodies and blood, and walked towards them. Chris tensed, ready to run, and he knew Jill had done the same. But then the girl laughed. This made Chris want to run even more, especially upon seeing the rows of razor-sharp teeth, but he felt Jill relax next to him. Not good. Seeing her trick had worked the girl started to speed up tiny, bloody hands outstretched. 

"Chris move!" Tyler shouted, "Get her out of the way!"

Chris snapped to attention and pulled Jill out of the girl's way, causing her to scream, and then wail. The sound echoed in the room making it seem louder then it really was. Jill was brought back to reality when Chris moved her abruptly. Tyler opened fire on the girl, but the bullets had no effect on her. But what was strange was the way her body delt with them. The bullets peirced her flesh, yes, but the wounds close over instantly. The child turned her attention to Tyler. Appearently, wether it hurt or not, she didn't like being shot at. She wailed like a child who had been slapped for misbehaving as she adavnced on the man. Chris and Jill joined in shooting her, and she hald turned towards them, since they were causing her more pain then Tyler was. But then she turned back to Tyler. She couldn't make up her mind on who to go after. Finally she screamed on last time, and ran for the room they had come from. 

"What was she?" Jill asked, once she was sure the girl was gone.

"Long story. But her name's Kylie. She was an experiment. That's all I'll say," Tyler replied.

-------------------------------------

The bullet hit Phyl in the head. She dropped to the floor, crushing many of her attackers as she did The spiders, realizing their current play-thing was now dead, swarmed towards Ada. She tried to remain calm, and think of a way to escape. She tried to back up but found that she was as backed up as she was going to get. But as she pressed farther against the wall, her flashlight clicked on. The spiders halted in a flash. _Creepy little bastards. Able to stop on a dime._ The she realized why they'd stopped. The light. The light was to bright for them. She moved forward, keeping the beam i front of her, the spiders backed away from her. She got back under the trap door, and hoisted herself up and slammed the door shut. 

They'd go back to eating Phyllis now that she was gone. Though she almost hoped that they would chase her, so her friend's body wouldn't be destroyed. _I'm sorry Phyl...I'm sorry._ She blinked away tears. At least the way she had died had been quicker then what would have happened to her. The venom form them would have slowly ate away at her from the inside out. Taking hours to kill her, all the while causing exetreme pain.   
For a moment she berated herself for not thinking of the light, thinking that might have saved her friend, but no, not even that would have worked. Once Phyllis had been bitten even once she was done for. And there was no antidote for the spider venom. None. 

She got the feeling she was being watched before she heard the steps behind her. But she wasn't able to stand on and turn around before she felt herself being yanked to her feet, and squeezed tightly.


	15. Battles

_Chapter Fifteen: Battles_

Ada let out a yelp when she was grabbed, and was instantly grateful for being grabbed when she saw the enourmous spider leg set down right where she had been sitting. Then she realized that who or what had hold of her might not be friendly. she wrenched herself around in her captor's grip, trying to see who it was, but they held her to tightly, and she only managed to half-turn.

She heard a familiar voice telling her to calm down. Leon. She relaxed immediatly in his grip. He released her, and she was able to face him. He looked ragged, or rather, more so then he had when sheh ad last seen him. His right hand was wrapped in a bloody cloth, and he had many cuts all over his arms, and some on his face, along with the scar where Krauser had cut him months ago. Billy didn't look much better off, and both of his hands were "bandaged". Poor Becky looked like she'd been drug through hell and back. Her skin pale, and sickly looking, eyes tired. She practically screamed exhaustion.

She was brought back to the present by an inhuman shriek, as the spider Leon had saved her from made it unhappiness with the humans known. Ada spun around before she could say anything in thanks to Leon. The spider was practically crawling with smaller spiders...The same kind that had attacked Phyllis. The smaller spiders came at the four in a black mass, and Ada forgot about the flash light. The others ignored the smaller spiders. They concetrated on the large one, which was, from the look of things, a jumping spider. As bullets hit the large one, the smaller bugs cringed and slowed their assualt, as if they could feel the bullets. Ada joined ibn shooting the creature, just as it prepared to leap. All four of them managed to get out of the way when it crashed back to the ground, crushing its own offspring. One of it's legs dangled uselessly, about to fall off.

-------------------------------------

"Shit," Krauser muttered, seeing the uninvited guest. It would be easy to dispose of, yes, but it would allow Wesker a chance to escape, or kill him. The stalker lept at them, hitting them both. Had it not hit Krauser, he would have had it dead then, but it did hit him. Wesker regained his balance before Kruaser did, and used it to his advantage. In one swift movement, he broke the Stalker's neck, cutting of it's angry scream. Krauser, in the process of standing up, toppled back down when the body fell on him. He shoved it off, and managed to stand before Wesker got to him. But her wasn't able to avoid the blow that sent him crashing into the wall behind him The blow disoriented him for a moment, but he still dodged Wesker's next attack. Instead of his fist going through Krauser, it went through the wall.

"Gettting sloppy, Jack," said Wesker, smiling at him, "Time was when you were almost as good as me. You've lost some of your technique."

Krauser rushed at him in the blink of an eye, and he almost succeeded in his attempt to slice Wesker in half. But Wesker was just as fast as he was. He moved out of the way, and only suffered from a small cut across his ribs. He looked down and saw the tear in his clothes and scoffed.

"Pitiful. And here some of us considered you to be a success.," Wesker taunted.

Krauser went for him again. This time Wesker didn't dodge. He stayed right where he was, but he drew his knife. Krauser didn't have time to stop before he impaled himself but he was able to turn so that it missed his throat, and instead peirced through his shoulder. Not making any noise, he swung his blade-arm upwards, hitting Wesker. The blonde man now sported a gash across his face, and across his chest. He kicked Krauser backwards, sending him sprawling.

"My my," said Wesker, "Surely you haven't fallen this far...You're getting weaker by the second Jack. What have you done to yourself?" 

Krauser stood. Wesker was right. He was getting weaker. He didn't understand. The virus should have continued to increase his strength, not rid him of it. 

Understanding dawned on Wesker, "I see...You're the one that stole the sample of the new virus, aren't you?" He began to laugh hysterically, "Oh, Krauser, you've killed yourself," he laughed even harder as he said this, "That, that virus-" he had to stop and take a breath, "That virus isn't compatible with any others...if it doesn't take over...it kills the host."

He managed to get himself under control, though he continued chuckleing. "You're not worth my time...you'll be dead withing the next few hours anyway," he said, and walked away.

-------------------------------------

Tyler couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of Chris, but he pushed the thoughts out of his mind. He hadn't known Jill for that long anyway, so why should it matter? He was saved from thinking about this when a zombie showed up. Jill seemed to be in a murderous mood, for she suddenly sid, upon seeing the zombie,

"Too bad I don't have more ammo...I wanna kill something."

Chris laughed at her, and easily dodged the zombie, who seemed to be more occupied with chasing a large rat then going after the humans. Jill and Tyler went by it easily as well. Only once they'd gone by did it turn to face them. For some reason Jill thought it had an oddly triumphant look on it's rotting face. She found out why.

From the 2 bends in the hall came 5 more zombies. They had set a trap, with the first zombie to distract anyone who came through. And it had worked; the group was surrounded.

"Great...what now?" Jill muttered. They didn't have the ammo to take out all of them, and the zombies would be on them before they could kill them all anyway. 

The first zombie started to reach for Jill when it's head exploded. Quite literally. An odd ticking sound came from the left hall, and another zombie's head was blown all over the wall. All three of them turned to see what was causing the zombies' deaths, and saw the man who'd killed Claire, his eye still dripping blood, holding a crossbow. He shot another bolt, and a third zombie's head exploded. Jill didn't want to think about what would happen to her if she got hit by one. He easily killed the rest of the zombies, then turned the crossbow towards them. He pointed it at easch of them and stopped at Chris. 

"An eye for an eye," he said, grinning, looking like a crazy man, "Kind of fair don't you think?"

Without another word, he pulled the trigger. 

-----------------------------------

Spencer watched them all on the monitors in his office. This was all very entertaining. "How many down now?" he asked himself, and looked at the screens. Counting the bodies, he began to laugh. 

"Oh, Miss Wong...Almost all of your team is dead...And the STARS won't last much longer..."

No matter that Ada and her group were so close he could hear the gun shots...they'd never find him. Not with the maze of hallways they'd have to go through to actually find out how to get in the room. He didn't know what Ada wanted, but it was clear she wanted to get to him.

And that she wanted to do so alone. She had alrady ditched them once, and she'd probably do it again. But the question was, why? Why was she so dertermined to get to him? He could understand the others, but not her.

-------------------------

The spider's leg fell off, finally, and several more had fallen off as well. It was having exetreme problems moving around. It was almost dead. Just a little bit more...

Rebecca was busy stomping on the little spiders that seemed to know she was the weakest, phsyically, of the group. She was doing a good job of keeping them off for someone with such small feet, and she hadn't been bitten yet, or she'd have been on the ground, screaming.   
The others were concentrating on the larger spider. Leon was busy trying to reload his gun, and Billy was swearing because he had no more ammo to reload his weapon with. Ada tossed him a spare clip, and he nodded in thanks.

but before he finished reloading, the spider crashed to the floor, it's remaining legs twitcing. The spiders surrounding Rebecca sudden't stopped crawling, and died.

"Okay..." said the small woman, "That was weird...why did they all die to?"

Ada,wondering the same thing, replied, "I dunno...but it's best not to think about it...dead is dead."

Rebecca nodded at her. The poor girl still looked sick. Ada hadn't had the chance to ask why as of yet. With the spiders dead, Ada turned to Leon. She hadn't thanked him.

"Thanks, by the way...The damned thing would have killed me if you hadn't grabbed me,"

"Don't mention it," he replied, "And why were you just sitting there? I tried to get your attention before I grabbed you like that. I don't know how you could have not heard me."

She shook her head at him, "I...I don't want to talk about it...Let's just get out of here." She started to walk past him, but he grabbed her arm, squeezing slightly. Not enough to hurt her, but enough to let her know he was serious.

"Phyllis is dead...I killed her..."

He gave her a puzzled look, "You...what?"

"I shot her...I had to...Those spiders. If they bite you, you're dead. But it's not a quick death. It takes hours of pain before the venom finally kills you, if the wretched things don't eat you first. It was kill her, or let her suffer."

Leon released her arm, though slowly, "I- I'm sorry."

She jerked her arm the rest of the way out of his grip, "Don't be. I do what I have to. "

Billy and Rebecca traded glances, and wisely kept their mouths shut. They had had enough arguments in the past few months to know when one was starting. And this was one they didn't want to get involved in.

------------------------------

Just as he pulled the trigger of the crossbow,the man stumbled forward, choking, The bolt speeded towards Chris, but it was off target, and it grazed his ear. The impact, thankfully was not enough to detonate it, but it hit the wall behind him, and all three of them were knocked forward. Jill kept her balance, until Tyler fell on her. All three of them lay in a heap on the floor while their attacker stood maybe 20 feet away, chocking. Tyler untangled himself from the pile, and clumsily got to his feet, pulling the other 2 with him. 

"Come on...we need to go," he said, tugging on both of them.

But neither would budge.

"He's right," Chris said, his voice full of loathing, "An eye for an eye. Only fair. But I'm not going to play the rules...Not this time."


	16. So Close

_Chapter Sixteen: So Close_

Leon stare at Ada for a moment before he spoke.

"Don't do that...Don't go back to being the cold bitch who only cares for herself."

"Like it or not, Leon, I AM a cold bitch," she snapped at him, "You're just blind to that fact. You always were, and always will be."

She started to go past him againg, but once again he stopped her. This time he had hold of both of her arms. "Let go," she hissed, trying to wriggle from his grip, but with no success. He had a firm grip.

"Am I?" He asked, noting Billy and Becky watching them out of the corner of his eye, "Or do you just convince yourself that I am, so that you can believe it as well?"

She smirked at him, "Don't try to evaluate my personality problems, Leon. Now if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you would let go."

He tightened his grip on her for a moment, then released her, sighing. He turned away from her and she placed a hand on his shoulder, "Now's not the time for this anyway...Once we're out of here, yell at me all you like."

He smiled slightly at this, and waved at the others to follow him. Time to be on the move again. But Ada wasn't going with them. She was out of danger now, and Spencer's office had to be here somewhere. And close as well, unless the puzzle at the beginning of the tunnel was simply worded the way it was for appearences, which she doubted.  
Once they were out of the room, she drifted to the back of the group, and quietly slipped inot the shadows, her bloodstained clothing dark enough by now to help her blend in with the shadows.

-----------------------------

Chris jerked himself out of Tyler's grip and began to walk towards the man, how by now had stood up. He didn't bother with his gun. He wasn't going to need it. He'd take care of this one with his bare hands. He easily ducked when his enemy dropped the bow gun and went back to using his blade arm. The man's movements were slow and sloppy. Easy to dodge. 

Chris slammed his fist into the side of his opponent's face sending him tumbling into the wall. Chris let him stand up before he struck again, this time with the other hand, to Krauser's ribs. He felt bonce cracking beneath his knuckles. Much to easily. But it made no difference. His sister's murderer was going to die, one way or another. As Krauser fell forward, Chris slammed his knee into his face. But he gave a yell of pain when he felt teeth dig into his flesh. So the man had finally started fight back. Good. 

One moment he was standing, the next he felt his back slam into the floor. Above him, Krauser prepared to strike, raising his blade-arm up. As he brought it down, Chris rolled out of the way. He got up as Krauser pulled the blade from the floor, and staggered backwards.

"Jill, we've got to help!" Tyler said, for the tenth time, and Jill still wouldn't budge.

"He has to do this on his own," she replied, watching the fight ensue, "He doesn't want, or need our help"

This had been her answer each time he had said they needed to help. And it was the truth. Tyler didn't know Chris like she did. He couldn't understand that this was soemthing Chris needed to do on his own. Not just to get revene for Claire's death, but for himself as well. Or at least, that's what Jill thought. She had been wrong before. But the only person who had known Chris better then her, was dead now. She watched the men fight, wincing when Chris took a blow. She almost gave in to her urge to help him when he wasn't able to fully dodge a blow from the man's blade-arm. But form the looks of things it was only a small gash. Both men were wearing down, neither would last much longer. Jill only prayed that it was the other man who gave in first.

-------------------------------------

"I'm going to kill her!" Leon said to Billy, when they disovered Ada was gone again, "I'm going to kill her very dead, and leave her for the zombies. "

"Can you do so AFTER we get out of here?" said Rebecca, who was starting to look much better, "Cuz we have company."

Indeed they did. There were 5 zombies after them, and all 5 were trying to fit through the door at the same time. Hence them not yet being in the room. But they'd figure out how eventually, and Leon didn't want to be there when they did. He nodded in agreement, and headed for the door opposit the zombies. But the door opened into a closet.

"Shit!" Rebecca almost shouted, making Billy and Leon both stare at her in shock. Seeing them looking at her, she shrugged, "It's what comes of being locked up for 4 months with Billy..."

If they hadn't been in such a dangerous area, Billy might have laughed at her, but instead he was only able to manage a small smile. Something in the closet caught his eye. A ladder.

"Hey, look!" he said, stepping into the small dark space, " We have a way out."

"Are you sure?" Rebecca asked, she was slightly claustrophobic, and since they were on the 5th floor, there was only place the ladder could lead...the attic, "I mean...what if there's som-"

A thud from the other side of the room interupted her. One of the zombies toppled to the floor. It might have been comical if it hadn't now been in the room with them.

"Nevermind," said Rebeca, "Let's go..."

"Right," Billy and Leon chorused.

Billy climbed up in a matter of seconds, as the ladder wasn't that tall. Becky and Leon argued for a moment about who was going first, but Billy ended it when he shouted down at them to hurry up. Leon grabbed Rebecca and gave her a shove up the ladder. She wasn't even able to grab it before Billy had hold of her, and had pulled her up. Leon was next.   
however more intelligent these zombies may have been then the normal ones, it did them no good when their quarry was up a ladder, as appearently they still couldn't climb. Billy swore at them under his breath, as Rebecca turned to Leon.

"As much as I appreciate your concern for me,"she said, though she smiled, "I am capable of climbing on my own."

"Well we knew that," Billy remarked, moving away from the ladder, "But you were too occupied running your mouth to get up here."

She smirked at him, but didn't bother to reply to the remark. At least the space was bigger then she'd thought it would be, so it wasn't bothering her yet. "While the zombies can't get up here, I say we rest a bit..."

"Way ahead of you," Leon replied, leaning against the wall, "My feet need the rest, and you, Doc, are starting to look a little green again. What about you Billy?"

Billy shrugged, "I could use the rest. We all could."

That settled, Rebecca sat next to Billy, staring into the darkness that was the rest of the attic.

-------------------------------------------

Ada wound her way through the maze of hallways, always searching for the right room. twice she had come to a dead end. She hated this floor. Always had. She heard thudding, and voices above her. Someone was in the attic. That didn't concern her, however. What concerned her was getting to Spencer. Which she was going to do. No matter what. 

Not paying attention, she nearly ran into an open door. For some reason the fact that the door was open puzzled her...Spencer always insisted that every door was kept closed...So someone had come through here, either angry, or frightened. Seeing no where else to go, she entered the room. For a moment she thought she had stepped into the twilight zone. The room was a pale yellow, very much in contrast with the dark red of the rest of that floor. The only thing that seemed to be in place was the far corner of the room. Blood was splattered nearly up to the ceiling, and about a 6 foot area of the pale pink carpet was covered in dried blood as well. Looking up above the door frame, she realized what room this was. Kylie's room. The bars that dropped down behind the door, and the rest of the room told her all she needed to know.

Spencer and his sick sense of humor. The room looked like that of any normal little girl. there was a twin-size bed in one corner, a book shelf, -(though Ada knew the books weren't real. There were probly survelliance cameras behind them)- and stuffed animals. Though most of the latter were missing various body parts. And there were bits of stuffing on the floor. The blankets on the bed were wrinkled, torn, and stained. the one corner that was covered in blood was obviously where Kylie had eaten. Getting creeped out, Ada started forward. Like the door she'd come through, this one had bards that dropped down in front of it, but at least they, like the other side, were up. As she opened the door, she half expected to hear the little girl's shriek, but no shriek came, so she continued forward, keeping any eye out.

She had always wondered why Spencer had insisted on having Kylie in the way of getting around, but after finding the tunnel she and Phyllis had been in, she knew. Kylie kept any unwanted vistors away, and Spencer could use any passages he had to get around her. Clever.  
At least she didn't have to worry about finding any of the passages for now, since her way was clear. But what about later on? If she HAD to find any of the passages, she hoped they weren't opened with anymore lamp puzzles. She didn't know how much more damage she could take. Much less any more blood loss. Her jeans were dark with dried blood from where Kylie had bitten her, the collar of her shirt was a darker red then it had been to begin with, from the gash across her face, and the hole in her ear, plus the various cuts and gashes, that she wasn't quite sure where she'd gotten. Some were probably from the plane crash.

After half an hour of wandering through hall ways, and finding very few doors, she came to a dark area of the hall. There were no lights in this stretch, nor windows, so it was obvious it was meant to be dark. That meant she was on the right track. Trust Spencer to leave the ways leading to his office dark. But the dark posed a problem: It was pitch black further down, so she wouldn't be able to see any zombies, if any were there, that was. There may not have been any on this floor.Most of the people would have been down stairs. Though a few would have been up here.   
_Not much longer, Spencer...And you'll be mine...  
_

_---------------------------------------_

Krauser was fighting back now. He had momentarily gotten his strength back, but not enough to be able to kill Chris off quickly. Chris was still able to dodge any attempts Krauser mad to cut him in half. The hallway was in shambles now. Boards all of the place, bits of sheet-rock. There was a cloud of the dust from the latter, that made everyone present cough. Most of the damage was done by Krauser, when Chris dodged a swing.

Chris grabbed a fallen board. His fists were starting to hurt, and he wasn't quite ready to finish his opponent off with the gun. He swung hard at Krauser's face with the board, and hitting him. A nail in the board ripped the other man's cheek open, and blood flowed from the wound, and fell onto the floor. The cut went all the way to the bone, as Chris could tell from the flash of bone he saw when the man turned his head, and the flap of skin fell open. He was glad that Jill was keeping Tyler out of the fight. He had heard them arguing before. He'd have to remember to thanks Jill later. If he survived. He was getting tired and all it would take would be one missed dodge, and he'd be toast.

He ducked under another swing form Krauser's arm, and swung his foot around, hooking it around Krauser's leg. With one swift jerk, he had the man on the ground.He tossed the board aside, glanced at his gun lying on the floor, then looked back at his opponent, who was trying to get up. Glaring, Chris put his foot on the man's chest, holding him down. The man didn't bother to try to escape. He coughed, sending a spray of blood onto Chris' legs, and spoke

"Who was that girl, anyway?" He said almost cackling, "Must have been pretty important."

"She was my sister, you sorry fuck," Chris spat back.

Krauser grinned maliciously at him, "That makes the kill all the better," he replied, laughing.

Chris said nothing as he unsheathed his knife from his belt. He fingered the blade for a moment, watching the man's reaction. He didn't seem surprised, and showed no fear. But his eyes widened in shock when Chris raised the kinfe...

"I'll see you in hell."

...And brought the blade down and buried it deep in Krauser's throat, warm blood flowing over his hands, making the hilt of the knife slippery in his grasp. Krauser's hand twitched as he died, and Chris continued to drive the blade in as deep as he could, until it had come into contact with the floor. He stood up straight, shaking his hands, sending drops of blood all around. He glanced back down at the corpse, then went to grab his gun, further cleaning the blood from his hands. After he had his gun back in it's holster, he strode over to the other two. Both looked at him as if they were afraid of him, but the look was gone from Jill's face after a moment. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, she embraced him.

-------------------------------

Ada tried the door, locked of course. Knowing Spencer, it was opened with a puzzle. She despised Spencer's little games, but she was so close. So close to her goal that she had been working to acheive for 18 years. She heard a cough from the other side of the door, and smiled to herself. Spencer was on the other side of that door. _I'm coming Spence...Just wait. _  
She looked around for anything that might trigger the puzzle, when the door opened, and she heard Spencer's dry voice.

"Ada, my dear, please come in."

If she had been thinking clearly she might have noted the strange tone of his voice. But the only thing that went through her mind as she head for the door was _So Close...  
_


	17. You Don't Have the Nerve

_  
Chapter Seventeen: "You Don't Have The Nerve"_

_E_xaustion was finally taking it's toll on Rebecca. That, and the heat in the attic made her drowsy. She realized she wasn't the only one who was sleepy when she cast a glance up at Billy. He was drifting off, then shaking himself awake, and then reapeating the cycle over again. Leon was as well. For a moment she considered taking a short nap. Just a short one, to regain a bit of alertness, instead of being dead on her feet. She even snuggled closer to Billy, resting her head on his chest, aware of his arm around her, and let her eyes close.  
But a yell for her and Billy to watch out from Leon shook her back into the real world. The area between the attic door and the floor being short, the zombies realized that they could still reach the humans with their arms. Billy rolled away from the reaching arms, taking Rebecca with him. They stopped rolling just short of hitting Leon, who had been to busy watching the arms to notice.

Rebecca, forgetting for a moment she was underneath Billy, tried to get up. She stopped just short of her face hitting his. He looked shocked at her nearness for a moment, then smirked when her face went red. He pushed himself off of her, and pulled her up.

Once on her feet she looked at both men, "Well,...We ready to go?"

Leon nodded at her, "Yup," he started for the other end of the room, "Maybe there'll be another way out of here," he added with a shrug.

Rebecca started to follow him, when Billy spoke up, and grabbed her arm, "There was one more thing, Rebecca," and spun her around to face him.

She stumbled forward a bit, so she was scant inches away from him. "And that would be?" she asked, not bothering to back up.

"I was gonna wait till we were outta here, but for one, never know which second will be your last, and two, I'm a guy, Doll face," he smirked at her. He leaned down, and kissed her. Rebecca, shocked and pleased at the same time, couldn't keep the nervous smile off her face when he straightened again.

Leon cleared his throat from up ahead, not saying anything, but it was obvious he wanted them to hurry up.

-------------------------------------

Wesker paced through the halls. Chris was somewhere ahead. He knew that much. And it was high time he payed Chris a visit. He had waited, waited until he knew chris would be emotionally weakened. Physically it didn't matter. Wesker knew Chris would lose to him either way. But what Wesker wanted was to destroy him mentally. THEN he would enjoy the pleasure of killing him. Then he'd get Jill. Afterward would come the others, then Spencer.  
He stopped when he felt the carpet squish under his feet, as if it were wet. And it was. It was soaked in blood, and lots of it. In the center of the bloody area was Krauser. Quite literally nailed to the floor with a knife. Chris' knife, it seemed. Why Chris would have left it, he didn't know, but it didn't really matter either. The hallway was destroyed, so Krauser had put up a fight, as expected. But since he was dead, with no bullet wounds that Wesker could see, then he had been even weaker then before. Things, it seemed, were in Chris' favor for now. But not for long.

Claire was already dead, so he couldn't use the brat as a way to get to Chris...but Jill...Jill was still alive, or had been the last time he had seen the security monitors, and he hadn't come across her body yet. How easy it would be to break her fragile body. And when he was done with Chris, he'd move on the second group...He was going to enjoy snapping Rebecca's scrawny little neck, and the others too. Then he'd get to Ada eventually. Shame really to kill her off. Lovely as she ws. But it had to be done.

Stepping over Krauser's body, he contued on his way, smiling to himself

-------------------------------------

Tyler stopped dead in his tracks. He could have sworn he heard something near by. Sounded like heavy breathing. Jill, who had been lagging behind for some time due to her injuries, ran right into him.

"Ow!" she started, rubbing her nose, "Why'd you s-"

"Shh!" Tyler interupted, "Listen."

Chris, not hearing the other two behind him, stopped and turned around. After trying and failing to get their attention, he eventually walked back to them, "What's wrong?"

"Listen," Jill and Tyler said at the same time.

He stared at them for a moment, ad listened. Like them, he heard the breathing. And quite frankly he didn't want to know what was making the sound. He said as much, and Jill nodded in agreement. Tyler reluctantly agreed that it was probably something they'd rather not see, but it was obvious his curiousity was getting the better of him. He started for the door that the sound seemed to be coming from and reached for the doorknob, and Chris loudly cleared his throat, but Tyler ignored him. 

"Tyler, let's go," Jill said, grabbing his sleeve, and trying to pull him back.

"I want to know what it is," he replied blandly.

"Why do I have the feeling we're going to regret this?" Chris sighed, as Tyler opened the door.

-----------------------------------

Spencer closed the door after Ada had entered the room. Ada didn't hear the low click as he locked the door. She instantly noticed the heat in the room. Hot enough to make it hard to breathe. How did Spencer stand it in here? Keeping an eye on the old man she sat on a chair. it seemed a shame to ruin the chair's soft velvet surface by touching it with her sweat, blood, and grime covered self, but she didn't care right then. Spencer slowly made his way to his desk and sat down. Ada glanced at the monitors behind him, noting the bodies. There was Claire, Justin, Phyl. Those she knew about. The others she didn't. Amber, Tim, Krauser. She saw Jill, Chris and Tyler in a hall way somewhere on the third floor, and Wesker also on the third floor. 

She wanted to shout a warning to them, but she had her own problems to deal with. Right in front of her was Spencer, whom she hadn't actually seen in person in years. Wesker was the only one who saw him on a regular basis. He stared at her over the desk, looking for all the world like a kind old grandfather.. But Ada saw the malicious gleam in his eyes. He was, for lack of a better word, evil, and crazy to boot.   
She saw him reach into a desk drawer, but she didn't see what he pulled out. She'd have to keeop an eye on him. First she was going to have a chat with him see if he'd get the idea, see if he was as smart as he was supposed to be.

"Why are you here, Miss Wong?" Spencer said suddenly, his voice dry and whispery. Though it sent shivers down her spine for some reason. He may have been many things, but a non-intimidating man he was not. 

"Well, that's what you're going to find out," she replied, sounding more sure of herself then she felt.

He laughed at her, though it was not an amused sound. He sounded as if what she had said had angered him. "And how exactly am I supposed to find this out?"

She lazily pulled out the knife she'd stolen from Wesker. She'd decided on how he was going to kill him. It wasn't going to be with the knife...the knife was going to be for causing pain. She didn't answer him with anything more then a mischevious smile, her eyes glinting with 18 years worth of held back anger and hatred. She put her feet up on his desk, noting his look of displeasure. Though she couldn't blame him. The boots on her feet were blood-crusted, and otherwise filthy.

She kept them up though, fingering the knife, all the while keeping a close eye on his movements. He still had whatever it was he'd taken from the desk in his hand, and he didn't want her to see what it was.

------------------------------------

"Well we ain't got much of a choice but to go down there," said Leon, looking at the ventalation shaft they had found. 

The only other exit they had found had been under a large trunk. Rebecca had seen the rope handle for pulling up the door. They had moved the trunk and opened the door, only to be greeted by the sight of 3 silencers fighting over a meal. Billy had quickly, but quietly shut the door and let the other two pull the trunk back into place. It wasn't long after that when they found and way into the ventalation system. It was that or go through monsters. The problem was fitting. Rebecca would, and Billy most likely would. Both were hardly anything more then skin and bone. Leon on the other hand hadn't been starved for four months and left without exercise for that time.

A shriek from the direction of the trap door they'd found mad up their minds. They'd have to go in. 

"I'll go first," Billy said, "Becky, I want you to go last..if anything happens to either me or Leon, I want you to get out."

"I think I know what the bait-worms feel like now," Leon muttered, though not begrudgingly.

Billy climbed in first, then Leon, then Rebecca. 

It was small, dark and cramped, and ot to mention hot. Rebecca began to feel sick, and stopped crawling for a moment, taking deep breaths. The shaft seemed smaller then it really was all of a sudden. Billy and Leon both turnedtheir headsas best as they could to see her, and why she had stopped.

"You okay, Rebecca?" Billy asked, a worried look on his face. She was starting to look sick again.

She shook her head, gasping, "I..I'll be okay when we get out of here...I don't like small spaces.."

Both men looked at her sympathetically, and continued on their way. There was nothing they could do, even if they hadn't been unable to move in any other direction but forward. None of them heard the cat approaching them, but they sure as hell saw it, at least, Billy did. Rebecca heard it hiss, and spit at the sight of someone in it's domain. How the cat had gotten up here, Becky didn't know.  
Billy stared at the cat. The other two couldn't see what he saw. It was bleeding, blood tapping steadily as it fell, part of it's tail was missing, the bone exposed, one ear, along with half the skin and fur on that side of it's face, were missing. The bone shone white against the what had probably once been beautiful calico fur, but was now matted with dried blood, and grime. One tooth was missing, and the one milky white eye that wasn't surrounded by fur looked like it was going to fall out. It, or rather she, since Billy knew that almost all calicos were female, was missing several toes, on a foot that hung on by only a bit of skin. 

He couldn't back up, not without running into the others, but if he spoke to them he might make the cat move. He squeezed his hand back far enough to grab his gun, and, though with some difficulty, had it somewhat aimed at the cat. It would be hard to hit it in the head from here, but he could try. That was it it came just a bit closer. It hissed at him again, and Rebecca spoke up.

"Billy what are you-" she was cut off suddenly when Leon gave her a light kick in the chest. He had caught a glimpse of the cat, and didn't want it suddenly rushing for them. Rebecca rubbed the spot Leon's foot had come in contact with her, but she made no more noise. She heard tapping. like liquid falling on metal, and the cat's growls. Then she heard the gun go off, and couldn't help but jump. The sudden sound had shocked her. After her ears stopped ringing, she spoke again.

"What was that about?"

"You know how I said once that cats were the source of ultimate evil? When you get up here you'll see why."

Leon smirked at this, and once Billy had continued moving forward, he started to go past the cat. It twitched slightly, and he moved backwards clumsily. Rebecca, after seeing what his problem was, laughed a bit at him. 

"Jumpy?" she asked when he looked back at her. He rolled his eyes and continued forward, hoping they found the way out soon.

---------------------------

Ada and Spencer had been sitting in silence for a good 10 minutes before either spoke. Ada was beginning to lose her patience. 

"So you're here to kill me are you?" the old man asked, making it sound as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

"What makes you say that?" Ada replied, calmly, though with a hint of impatience.

"Well, you fought so hard to get here. Only one thing a person could have on their mind to do that. Murder. "

"Don't be hypocritical, Spence. You kill alot of people, or rather, you send your henchmen out to do it for you," she snapped.

"Then would you not want to go after the one who did the actual killing? That is always assuming you're after me for any sort of revenge. Is it that, my dear, or is it a guilty concious?"

"Wesker was nothing more then a tool," Ada replied coldly, "you were the one who gave the order...the real reason they're dead."

Spencer only gave her one of his crazy smiles, fidgeting with whatever it was he had in his hand. After a moment he finally said, "The reason who is dead?"

"You ordered two people killed 18 years ago, Spence. The man found out what was really going on in Umbrella, and told his wife. So you ordered Wesker to get rid of them, and anyone else they might have told. Do the names Kate and Jonathan Wong sound familiar to you?" by now she was no longer sounding calm, or even cold. She sounded furious. "Wesker wasn't up to his usual standards that night, you know. He didn't bother to check the house, and he missed me."

The old man stared at her for a moment, then roared with laughter, making Ada's temper flare even more. "oh, Ada...You're pathetic. As pathetic as everyone who wants to get rid of Umbrella because we've done harm to them or their friends. Do you really think you're any better then me?"

"I'm no murderer," she spat back at him.

"Perhaps not. But you have helped me these past, what? Ten years now? You've collected all the data we've asked for, you've followed every order. You've helped us, so in a sense, you're as guilty for all the deaths as anyone else who works here." he was obviously enjoying all of this, "so if you want to kill me, go ahead. But know that you are as much to blame for everything as Albert or I."

Ada, stunned by him, made no move. He took this as hesitation out of fear, and an evil grin spread across his wrinkled old face. "I knew it...You don't have the nerve."

This got Ada into action. Though her movement was more out of rage then any clear thought, so it was sloppy. Then she found out what Spencer had in his hand. As she jumped at him from across the desk, she felt a needle peirce her thigh. Whatever liquid it was filled with burned like fire, but she didn't pay it much attention. Spencer toppled out of his chair, and he and Ada rolled across the floor. Ada, being younger, and faster, got up and held Spencer down. The knife had cut both of them several times in their breif fight, though him more then her. Any thoughts of making him suffer for a while vanished, and she simply wanted him dead. She drew her gun, and pointed it at him with a shaky hand, and began to squeeze the trigger.

Her grip on her knife with the other hand loosened, and the blade clattered to the floor, and her grip on her gun also loosened, but she didn't dtop it. She stumbled backwards, feeling dizzy, and short of breath. Pain flared up in her legs, and it was difficult to stand. Spencer stood, laughing, as Ada's vision blurred then cleared, then blurred again. She fell forward, the knife only inches from her hand. She reached for it, grasping it firmly in her hand. Spencer bent over her, taunting her. She didn't bother to listen to what he was saying. When he knelt to say something to her face, she let out a yell, and slashed upward with the knife, cutting him from his hip, all the way up to his shoulder.

She shoved herself away from where he was going to fall, slamming into the floor a few feet from her original position. He was amazingly still alive. But that was a condition she would shortly remedy.


	18. Revenge

_Chapter Eighteen: Revenge_

_C_hris held his gun at his side, but he was ready to quickly aim it if need be. Tyler shoved the door open, and something jumped back to avoid being hit. Two green orbs glowed in the dark room, and too late to close the door, Tyler realized it was a dog, and a huge one at that. It came into the light, and they could tell it had once been a black great dane...but it was larger then it's normal size now. For some reason it's eyes weren't all milky white...just the pupils, but the whiteness was spreading second by second. It didn't seem to have any wounds on it, but a syringe was sticking out of it's side...It's owner had deliberately infected it, or so it seemed. The dog lept at tyler, hitting him with enough force to knock him to the floor. Both Chris and Jill felt the floor shake.

Tyler grabbed the dog's jaws to keep it from ripping his thoat out. Rot-smelling drool dripped down onto him. Chris, still caught offgaurd by the dog's sudden leap, was just as shocked as the dog was, when it suddenly went sprawling as one of Jill's boot-clad feet rammed into its side.  
Tyler scrambled to his feet , and nearly ran into Jill. The dog recovered from the kick, and also got to it's feet. Chris, remembering his gun, shot at it. His first shot hit the dog, but not where he wanted to hit. He fired, just as the dog was starting to move. The bullet missed it's head, and instead when through it's ear, and into it's shoulder. The second shot got it's head. The dog didn't fall right away. It was as if it couldn't believe what had happened. When it finally fell to the floor with a thud, Chris spoke.

"No one opens another door when something can be heard behind it."

The others nodded in agreement, Tyler trying to rid his shirt of drool. Though it didn't help any. There was no hope for any of their clothes anymore. They began to head silently back down the hall, not saying anything. Chris heard the footsteps coming up behind them, and started to turn when he heard the beginning of a yell from Jill that was cut off when she suddenly choked. Chris turned fully around, knowing what he'd see. And even though he knew, he didn't hate and fear what was there any less. 

Wesker stood there, his shades on the floor beside him, his odd cat-like yellow eyes getting tints of red in them. With one hand he held Jill by the throat as she struggled to breathe, and to escape. The other hand struck Tyler, sending him to the floor. Chris knew immediately that he was unconcious.

"Hello Chris," Wesker said, not paying any attention to the struggling woman he held, "How nice to see you."

"Let her go, Wesker," Chris replied, every word filled with hate, "if it's me you want, come get me, but leave Jill out of it."

"Let her go?" Wesker asked, as if it were the strangest request. Then he smiled, sending shivers down Chris' spine, "If you insist." With that he flung Jill to one side, and she hit the wall with such force, that Chris heard a bone snap. She fell to the floor, unmoving.

--------------------------

The metal began to groan under the weight of the three. Rebecca started to suggest they go a different direction when a section of the vent dropped from beneath Billy. Both Leon and Rebecca yelled in surprise, and fear. A crash and graon signalled Billy's not so soft landing. Rebecca squeezed past Leon, or rather, under him, to peer down into the room below. Billy shoved himself up from the middle of the table he landed on, and broken. He looked up, seeing Rebecca's worried face peering down at him.

"Are you okay?" She asked

"Well, I resemble a cactus from the splinters," he replied, "and a few bruises, but nothing serious. Either way, you two may as well come down."

Rebecca nodded, disappeared for a second, and then started to lower herself down. Being so ahort she didn't come close to reaching the floor. She looked down for a moment, to see how far of a drop it was, and let go. The landed on hard on her feet, and toppled backwards, landing flat on her rear. Billy would have laughed at her if Leon hadn't shouted down to them to move out of the way.

Once all three were firmly on the ground, they examined their surroundings. The room was much like several others they'd been through. Bunks on each side of the room, a table, or what remained of it, in the middle. These were the employees' rooms. It resembled a school dorm room. But there was no time to think about what the room looked like. They had to keep moving. There was no telling when a monster would get hungry and need lunch. Leon opened the door and stepped into the hall. 

Billy and Rebecca followed, Billy trying to keep his arm away from Becky, who was trying to keep him still so she could get the larger bits of wood out of his skin. Rebecca started laughing at him and she tried to grab his arm.

"Leave me alone," Billy protested, though he was laughing too, "I can de-cactus myself."

Leon was about to offer his input when he heard something in a room near by. Sounded like something or someone falling. "Shhhh!"

They quieted instantly, and Leon tried to tell where the sounds had come from. When he heard a voice, he followed that, and as he got closer, he recognized the voice. It was Ada's. He could gear what was being said now, and Ada sounded weary. Billy and Rebecca caught up with him, and pointed to a door, but Leon shook his head. If Ada needed help, they'd go in, but for now, they'd stay out of it. He went back to listening what was going on, and was somehow shocked by the loathing in Ada's voice.

"Surprised your're still alive, Spence. Cut like that...could bleed you dry. But you're still alive..."

--------------------------------

"I can fix that, shortly."

Ada held herself up, using the desk to balance. Spencer was on the floor in front of her, choking on his own blood. Whatever he had injected her with was keeping her from being able to stand on her wn, and was making it dificult to see or grip anything. Knowing him it was some kind of hyped sedative, made to scare the victim into thinking they were dying, or maybe to make someone who was watching think the person who was dying... But now was not the time for speculation. She had something to finish.

Adjusting her grip on the knife, she managed to push herself forward enough to kneel next to the man. He was almost dead...If she didn't kill him quick, he'd die from the previous wound.

"So long, boss," she hissed, " Been pleasure working for you."

She raised the knife, and reached for her gun at the same time. Spencer would be dead before he knew what happened, literally. While he watched the blade, she grabbed the gun held it only inches from his head, and pulled the trigger. Blood and brain matter splattered on the carpet and wall, and just like that, it was done. Her goal of 18 years, over in the blink of an eye. It was almost hard to believe. She stared at the unmoving body in front of her, expecting it to move. When several minutes produced not even a twitch, she drug herself to her feet, and stumbled towards the wall. Using the wall for support she made her way to the door. She was surprised to see that it was moving, as if being pounded on form the other side. It took her a moment to realize there were voices as well, familiar ones. It was Leon, Rebecca, and Billy. They were arguing about something, while trying to get in at the same time. 

_oh well_, Ada thought,_ I'm done here anyway, now we can get the hell out of here. _ "Just...open... the door!" She yelled, or at least tried. Her voice didn't want to work.

"It's locked!" Rebecca called back with some anger in her voice, as if it were Ada's fault. 

Her vision was seriously screwed up by now, and everything was a red blur. She reached the door, and felt for the lock. But as she turned it, she heard two clicks. One of another lock on the door, and one of the trap she should have anticipated going off. She heard the grinding, which meant one of Spencer's falling ceilings. He certainly hadn't wanted anyone who might have killed him to get away. 

"Ada?" she heard Leon say over the noise, "What was that?"

"C-ceiling...falling..." She gasped in reply, struggling to stay up. She felt for the second lock, but couldn't find it. It had to be on the other side of the door. "There's..a lock...on that side!"

She heard them begin to argue again, as they tried to unlock the door. Ada heard it unlock just as she lost her hold on conciousness. She slumped against the doors, kocking them open when Leon turned the knob, and fell forward into a surprised Leon's arms.

---------------------------

"Jill!" Chris shouted, starting to run towards her, but Wesker stopped him. 

"Not so fast, Chris. She's as good as dead, same as you. Should have said good bye before you got here, now you're just out of luck. "

Chris felt Wesker's fist connect with his stomach, and for a breif moment felt his feet come off the ground. Then he hit the wall. Wesker loomed over him, smirking. Chris felt for his knife, but he didn't have it...He had left it with Krauser's body. All he had was his gun, but that wouldn't do much good, since it was back where he had previously been standing. He stood, surprised that Wesker hadn't killed him yet. 

Kylie sat on top of an open door, playing with a skull, and watching the men fight. It was entertaining. Much more entertaining then the skull that was certain. She tossed it back and forth in her tiny hands grinning. Both men were battered by now, though the blonde one seemed to be winning. In her amusement, she forgot to keep a tight hold on her toy, and it fell from her hands, and tumbled across the the floor and stopped near the men. She waited for her chance to grab the skull, creeping closer and closer to it, when the blonde man stepped on it. It of course shattered, and her plaything was gone. 

Much like a child that has been deprived of sweets, or a favorite toy, she began to wail. Both men stopped dead, and turned to look at her. But their staring only made her scream louder. She rushed at both of them, tiny arms flailing about as she clawed at both of them, but most of her attention was on the blonde one. She had never liked him, anyway. 

Chris stumbled backwards away from Kylie and Wesker. He'd let them fight it out. Then he'd finish off the one left standing. But he needed to check on Jill first. Turning away from the battle that was quickly turning bloody, he found that someone had beat him to making sure Jill was alright. Tyler had ergained conciousness and was knelt beside Jill's limp form.

"she's alive," he said, not looking up, and ignoring the yells from the fight, "But her arm's busted, and I'm pretty sure that she's got several broken ribs."

Chris looked down at the unconcious woman, sighing. He knelt down as well, placing a hand on Jill's cheek, then turned his head to watch Wesker and Kylie. Whichever won, he'd kill.

----------------------

Leon, surprised, nearly dropped Ada, but managed to just barely avoid doing so. The woman was unconcious, though it was unclear why. He risked poking his head into the room, since the ceiling was still far from reaching the floor. an old man lay on the floor near an old wooden desk. He looked like he'd had a visit to the butcher. He was slice open from the hip to his shoulder from what Leon could see. It was little wonder he was dead with a wound like that. Though there was a bullet hole in his skull, so that may have been what actually killed him.

He turned his attention back to Ada, who was waking up, then passing out again. He lifted her up comepletely off the floor, and looked at the other two, "Let's get out of here...Need to wake her up."

They went back to the room they had come from,and Leon tried to shake her awake. After a moment of no sucess, she opened her eyes. She looked up at him as if she didn't recognize him, and started mumbling something. Though Leon didn't bother to determine what. She had obviously been drugged. And they wouldn't be going anywhere until the effects wore off.

After about 45 minutes she woke up fully. She sat up, and glanced around.

"Where am I?" she asked, "and what happened?"

"You're just- ow!" Billy started, but stopped when Rebecca yanked another large bit of wood from his arm.

"You're down the hall from where you were," Leon finished, "as for what happened, the door opened and you've been slipping in and out of conciousness, babbling nonsense."

"Spencer and his damn drugs...He injected me with some kind of sedative, or something..I don't know what it was, but it certainly did a number on me."

"You think you'll be able to come with us?"

"It wasn't that powerful," she said, somewhat sarcastically, "Give me a minute and I'll be right as rain..."

------------------------

A scream, louder then the others they had heard, took Tyler and Chris' attention away from Jill. Wesker had finally gotten a good hold on Kylie, and she wasn't happy. With on swift yank, he broke her back, and her cry was cut off. Wesker tossed the child's body aside, satisfied. He was bleeding from bites and scratches all over. Any actual human would have died of blood-loss long ago, but then, Wesker wasn't exactly human.

He turned towards Chris, breathing heavily. Chris stood, "Looking a little tired, Wesker...Need a break?"

"Not before I get rid of you," Wesker spat, "You and the rest of your team."


	19. Not So Happily Ever After

_Chapter Nineteen: Not-so- Happily ever after_

Wesker spun, and kicked Chris hard in the stomach. The blow didn't send him back like it normally would have, but he was severely weakened from his fight with Kylie. But he was also still more then a match for Chris. Or so he hoped. He was momentarily stunned when Chris' fist connected with his face, and he stumbled back a bit. He recovered in a matter of seconds, and grabbed Chris by the throat, lifting him from the ground. He laughed coldly.

"I believe I've seen this situation before... The last time you survived...This time there's going to be a little script revision."

He squeezed Chris' throat tighter and tighter, all the while laughing. Chris started to go limp when something hit Wesker, making him drop his prey. 

"Jill?" Chris rasped, his voice not working. 

The broken arm hung uselessy at her side. In her good hand was the barrel of Chris' shot gun. The blood on the end told Chris what had hit Wesker, though he was surprised she'd been able to swing it with that much force. Tyler shouted out to them both, but it only distracted them, instead of helping them. Had Chris not looked towards Tyler, he might have been spared, but by the time he saw Wesker's hand, and the flash of metal, it was too late.

-----------------------

As Ada walked, she began to think...Think about what she was going to do. Spencer was dead, and if Chris didn't dispose of Wesker, once she set off the self destruct, he'd be dead too. She wanted to get out...the others wanted to find Chris and Jill. Though Ada wanted to find Tyler, if he was still alive. He was the last of her team, and he was also probaby with Chris and Jill...so it was search for the others, or leave them to die... She had gone along with the search idea. Though she forgot to mention on little thing to them...if the Destruct system wasn't set off manually in a certain amount of time, it would start the countdown on it's own...it was a safety measure.

she'd mention that later, if it was neccesary. For now they didn't need to know. She hung back at the end up the line they'd formed, like she always did. If she need to slip away, it would be easy. However, the chances of her having to make a get away were slim to none. Leon was saying something, but she didn't hear what. It didn't seem to be directed at her anyway, otherwise he'd have turned to see if she was listening, which she wouldn't have been. She was in no mood to talk, and in no mood to listen to anyone. Even if it was Leon. 

She looked at her watch. They had two hours tops before the system went off on it's own. Then they'd be screwed. If they didn't find the others soon, they were dead.

"They were on the third floor," she said suddenly, "I just remembered. I saw them on the security monitors in Spencer's office, they were on the third floor. That's where we should look..."

"Could have used that information s-" Billy started, when the floor dropped from beneath Rebecca and Leon, startling him into silence.

He dove to catch Rebecca's hand, and missed, but she and Leon managed to grab the edge of the still solid floor. Ada was about to sigh in relief when a silencer's shriek came form the hole. They sounded hungry. 

"Oh shit, guys! Get us up!" Leon shouted, trying to pull himself up. But his injured hand lost it's grip for a moment, and Ada thought he was going to fall. She ran to help him while Billy tried to get Rebecca back up.

Ada managed to pull Leon up before the Silencer got hold of him, but Billy was not so lucky with Becky. The silncer dug it's claws into her leg, and tried to pull her down. She screamed in pain, and fear, and Billy tightened his grip on her and continued to tried to pull her up.

"Hurry Billy!" Ada called, "Get her up!"

the floor was starting to slide back into place.. Rebecca's arms would be cut off, and she'd bleed to death, if the silencers didn't eat her first. Which was likely. Billy pulled harder, and Rebecca shrieked again. The monster had a good grip on her.

Finally, it let go, and Rebecca barely avioded loosing her feet as Billy drug her up. All four of them sat on the floor. Rebecca leaned against Billy letting him embrace her. Leon looked at Ada putting a bandaged hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks Ada...," he said, "How many times have you saved my ass now?"

"You've saved mine a few times too. We're even," she replied.

Leon was about to say something else when Ada stood, and pulled him up with her. She looked at Rebecca and Billy, "You two unglue your lips an lets get going."

Leon tried to supress a laugh, and choked in the process. Ada smirked at him, but said nothing. 

Billy helped Rebecca to her feet, with a sheepish glance at Ada, and kept an arm around her. She'd have to limp with her leg damaged as it was. Billy just hoped the virus wasn't transmitted through the silencer's claws.

---------------------------------

Time seemed to slow down for Jill, and all sound seemed to disappear as Chris slumped to the floor, Wesker's knife buried in his side.

"NO! CHRIS!" She screamed, though she didn't hear herself.

But to her amazement, Chris pushed himself back up as Wesker started to head towards her and Tyler. He swayed for a moment, then fripped the knife protruding from his side, and with one good yank, pulled it out. Wesker seemed to think her shock was from seeing Chris' body, and in a way it was, just not the way he thought. Wesker stopped in front of her, his inhuman eyes full of triumph, Jill heard Tyler swearing about now ammo, but Jill didn't think guns would be of much use.

"Time to get rid of you little cockroaches," Wesker hissed, and raised his hand to strike her.

She braced herself for the blow, but it never came.

Chris drew back his hand to stab Wesker a second time, when the blonde man turned around, he caught Chris' hand, keeping him from finishing off the blow. But in the end it was a matter of will, and Chris won. He twisted his arm just the right way and got out of Wesker's grip. His wounds slowed him down, so he would have to wait for just the right moment to strike, and in the mean time, bear a beating from his enemy. And a beating he got.   
Wesker was angry, very angry, and he put all his anger into his blows, buit Chris never made a sound as he avoided what he could, and took the rest, until Wesker's fist hit the wound on his side. Then he yelled in pain.

Jill watched from the sidelines, fighting with herself. Part of her knew Chris wouldn't want her to interfere, and another said to hell with what Chris wanted if what he wanted was going to get him killed. When she heard him yell, it made up her mind. Barrel of the shotgun in hand she strode to the two men.

"Hey, Blondie!" she shouted at Wesker. When he turned, more out of surprise then anything else, she hit him, once again, with the end of the gun. this time however he didn't fall. He just stumbled a bit.

But all Chris had needed was for Wesker to turn his back to him. Before Wesker could do anything else, brought the blade down, burying it in Wesker's skull. The man stumbled forward, towards Jill, who moved out of the way, and fell face first to the floor. Chris, having used any bit of strength he had left, fell back against the wall, and slid down, struggling to breathe. He felt like he was trying to breath through liquid, and maybe he was...

Jill dropped the shotgun and ran to Chris, talking so fast she scarecly knew what she was saying, though it was something along the lines of asking if he was okay.

Tyler grabbed Chris' handgun from near the doorway, and carefully approached Wesker, looking as if he expected the body to get up at any second. Jill couldn't help but get some amusement out of this, mostly because she too was bracing herself for movement. She turned her attention back to Chris. He was awake, but Jill didn't get the impression that he was really there. Not the she could blame him, he'd taken a hell of a beating, so his mind would probly work on shutting down until the pain dulled out a bit. She glance ever her shoulder at Tyler, who was still acting like Wesker's body was going to spring up at him.

"Is he dead?" he asked, looking at her.

Sighing, Jill glanced back at Chris, then stood up, and aproached Tyler and Wesker. She took the gun from Tyler and fired several rounds into Wesker's body, making sure that at least two were fired into his head. She handed the gun back to Tyler, not looking away from the body.

"Now he is."

--------------------------

All four of the little group stared in shock at the site before them. Wesker lay on the floor, and from all appearences was dead. The back of his head was destroyed by multiple bullets. About 30 feet aways lay the quite dead form of Kylie.

"Damn," said Billy, "Jill and Chris did a number on him, didn't they...Funny, I was beginning to think he couldn't be killed..."

"He was weakened first," said Ada, going to inspect Kylie. "She doesn't have a mark on her. Her back is broken. No human would be strong enough to get that good of a hold on her. She and Wesker fought it out, and the others took up where she left off."

"Are you sure _you're_ human?" Billy asked, "Cuz you came to that conclusion rather quickly."

"simple logic," she replied, "I used my brain. You might try the same thing now and then," she added, not looking at him.

"Okay...so we know they're alive...What now?" said Leon.

"We find them," Rebecca stated.

"There's just one problem," said Billy, "We don't know which way they went."

"Yeah we do," said Ada, smirking, "look." She nodded towards the trail of blood leading away from the area, and down the hall, "They didn't come out unscathed...somone, my money's on Chris or Jill, is bleeding, or was, pretty bad."

They followed the crimson trail, and Rebecca couldn't help but hope that there was no longer a trail to follow soon. But the longer it went on, the more worried she got. Billy sensed her worry, or so she thought, since he pulled her closer to him. She still had to use him for support, but she was able to manage a bit better. Right now she was concerned about whoever had bled this much. If they weren't dead from bloodloss (or worse) yet, they would be soon. And she didn't want to loose another team mate.   
Eventually there was no more blood to follow. Lack of a body so far gave Rebecca some comfort, but not much.

They continued making their way down each floor, and their passage was un-hindered by anything until they reached the main hall of the first floor.

--------------------------------------

Jill and Tyler had finally managed to get Chris' bleeding to stop, but Jill was afraid it was too late. He was slipping in and out of conciousness, and Jill wouldn't have been surprised if he was bleeding internally, with how much and how hard he had been hit. Not to mention she had no way of knowing how much damage that knife had done on the inside.

They were resting now. They had gotten to the main hall, and decided to wait for the others. They couldn't keep moving. For one it wasn't doing much good for Chris, for another, it didn't help Jill much either. They where hidden under the main staircase, so they would be safe from any monsters, but so they could keep an eye out of the others at the same time. She knelt next to Chris, who was propped up against the wall. He was awake now, but she didn't know for how much longer. His eyes darted around, but how much he actually saw was debatable. Jill would have even said he didn't recognize her, if he hadn't said her name as she was about get up.

"Jill?" his voice was barely above a whisper.

"Yeah?" she replied, sitting back down.

"Guess I got myself pretty beat up...If I had known it'd end up like this, I'd have left Wesker alone," he said, laughing. But the laugh turned into a cough, and it took him a moment to catch his breath

"You okay?" she asked, though she knew it a stupid question.

"No, I'm not...and I'm not going to be, so don't start that." he told her sternly. Then laughed again, "I'm an idiot...I was waiting till al this was over..Until Wesker was gone, and we wouldn't have to worry about any of this anymore.."

looking at himw ith puzzlement and worry on her face, she asked the obvious question, "What were you waiting to do?"

"I was going to ask you to marry me...Now I guess I should have said something a long time ago...Should have told you I loved you."

Had she not been so worried about him, she'd have hesitated to speak, but she didn't, "Don't talk like that...We're getting out. And you'll be alive when we do. I promise."

But he didn't hear her, he was uncocious again. But as long as he was still breathing, things were semi-okay. She looked over her shoulder at Tyler, who seemed to be asleep. She couldn't blame him. She wanted to just lie down and drift off as well, but someone had to keep watch.

But she, and Tyler, were fully awake when a loud shreik echoed throughout the hall. Then another, then another. She and Tyler risked peering out into the room, and didn't like was they saw. Several Silencers had gotten into the room.  
The door across the room opened, and Leon, then Ada, then Billy and Rebecca entered. This caught the monsters' attention, but they were to late to try and surpise the humans, since they had been spotted, and they knew it. At first Jill was wondering how it could possibly get any worse, when a dull mechanical voice filled the room.

"Warning. 5 minutes until detonation. All personell evacuate immediatly."

That was when Jill heard both Leon and Billy swearing. The silencers, momentarily phased by the voice, started for their prey.

"Look out!" Jill shouted to the group. She turned to Tyler, "Where's the emergency exit? Or will the main door's be unlocked?"

He shook his head, "No the emergency exit is in the basement. The main door will be open, bit the gates are padlocked...Tim and I made sure of that."

Gun shots drew their attention back to the others for moment before they continued. 

"Alright," said Jill, "can you show us the way? Or maybe Ada? "

"I can" he replied, "I know where the tunnels are."

"Good, we'll get the others and get the hell out of here. In the meantime, you take Chris. and head down to the basement. I can't move him."

Tyler looked like he was going to protest for a moment, but he didn't. He gave her a short nod, and went to do as she'd asked. Jill stepped out into the open, watching the others. Rebecca and Billy were having extreme problems. Becky seemed to be unable to stand on her own, so along with having to try and keep the Silencers at bay, he also had to keep a hold on Rebecca. Leon and Ada were doing better. One silencer was already dead, bullets through it's eyes. There were two left now. Jill actually thought they might be able to kill them off, but Billy shouted in anger about being out of ammo, as did Leon, and shortly after, Ada.  
The dull unfeeling voice alerted them that there were now three minutes until detonation.

"Guys! Come on!" Jill shouted.

Leon and Ada were quick to head for her, but Billy and Rebecca were having troubles. Finally, Billy scooped Rebecca up, and managed to catch up. With the creatures hot on their heels they ran, as fast as exhaustion and various injuries would allow.

When the got to the door to the basement the voice announced there were 2 minutes until detonation. Ada began to worry now. They could hear the silencers behind them, and two minutes would be pushing it to get out. and be able to get far enough away to avoid the blast. they turned the corner so fas they almost ran into Tyler, who stood next to an open trap door. No one bothered with greetings at the moment. They each went into the tunnel quietly, and quickly. At least the silencers would have a hard time fitting through the hole. Tyler was the last one in, and he saw the creatures heading for them. He would have closed the door if he thought they'd have time.

Now the voice warned that there was one minute until detonation, and that each floor would detonate squentially. Leon just hoped the basement was the last to go. Then they might have time to get out. There was light ahead, and a shadow. It seemed to be a person, but it was clear enough to see who it was yet. Thirty seconds to go, and they could see who it was. And it wasn't one person, it was two. It was Barry and Carlos, and Carlos' truck behind them.  
Jill started to shout at them, hoping they'd hear her.

"Get in the truck! Get in tuck and get ready to drive!" 

15 seconds. They hesitated a moment, but they did as they were told. Jill heard the erngine start.

10 seconds, they were out of the tunnel now, but not out of range. They clambered into the back of the truck, Tyler struggling with Chris.

5 seconds. "Get moving!" Ada shouted to the men, who were quick to listen. the passengers held on literally for dear life, since Carlos slammed on the gas so hard they were nearly thrown from the truck . Behind them a loud explsion signalled the end of the mansion, and as Carlos stopped the truck, they cheered. Rebecca caught Billy offguard, jumping on him and kissing him. Carlos and barry both got many thanks from everyone, and when asked how they had found them, they explained that it hadn't taken much searching to find out where they'd gone. Jill hugged Tyler, thanking him for his help, surprising him. Ada greeted her teamate, and though she showed no emotion at seeing him alive, he knew she was glad to see him again. And admist the "celebration" Jill realized that one person was missing. Chris. 

He was still unconcious in the corner of the truck bed, or so Jill thought. When she clambered back up to check on him, she bagan to worry again. She sat next to him, and placed a hand on his cheek. She pulled the hand back as if she had been burned. His skin was cold.

"Chris?" she asked, her voice shaking, and she heard the chattering around her stop. "Chris, wake up." Tears built up in her eyes as she shook him with her good hand. No repsonse. He was gone. Sobbing, she tried once again to wake him, but with no success. But her mind refused to beleive that Chris could be dead. Finally she gave up and buried her face in her former comrade's shirt, still crying.

Rebecca turned her face away from the scene before her, also crying. All she had to do was look at Chris to know that even if he had still been alive, there was nothing that could have been done for him...Carlos was the one that risked approaching Jill. He place a hand on her shoulder, and started to speak.

"Jill...I'm sorry."

she paid him no attention except to shove his hand off.

Leon turned to look for Ada, but she wasn't there. he looked around a moment more, and spotted her walking away. he could barely see anything more then the reamins of her crimson shirt and blue jeans, but he knew it was her. He watched until he couldn't see her anymore then turned his attention back to the others. Jill had been peeled away from chris' body, and Rebecca was working on setting her arm. Tyler stood to the edges of the group, looking uncomfortable. He jumped a bit when Leon spoke to him.

"Feeling out of place?"

He nodded, "Yeah...You've all known eachother for so long...Shouldn't have been Chris that died. If I hadn't tried to help, if I had kept my mouth shut, he wouldn't be dead, and Jill wouldn't be going through this."

"There's not garantee of that," said Leon, "And at least he lived long enough to know that we got out. That counts for something I think. And Jill still has the rest of us, including you, to help her."

Once again, he got a nod in reply, "I'll be happy to help Jill at least, in any way possible." With that, he headed forward, to speak with Jill.

_Epilogue_

Rebecca oversaw things from the top of the stairs, watching everyone. She had gotten good at reading her friends' emotions in the year since the mansion. And she liked what she saw for the most part. Carlos was smiling as he talked to his fiancee, Carrie, whom everyone adored. Barry was with his two daughters and Leon, the girls laughing at something Leon had said. Jill sat near Carlos and Carrie, saying something to them now and again. and she was also smiling. It had been hard for Jill at first. She had been most affected by Chris' death, and it was only in the recent months that she had started to laugh again, and talk to them, instead of giving them the cold shoulder.

Tyler came in from the kitchen, and threw a smile in her direction, and to Rebecca's surpise, Jill beamed back at him. Rebecca smirked at this. Maybe Jill was finalyl starting to take interest in the man. He had left her alone for several months after the incident, but lately he had been going out of his way to get Jill's attention, and was succeeding. He was about as lovestruck as it was possible to be. But Jill's eyes passed over the shelf, where sat pictures of her, Chris and Claire, and her smile disappeared for a second, and her eyes took on the haunted look they'd had until recently. But something Tyler said cheered her up again, and the look was gone.

Becky looked for Billy down there, but saw no sign of him.

"I thought it was the hostess' job to spy on the guests, not one of the guests'," Billy said sarcastically from behind her, "Jill's house, and you're up here, spying on everyone else."

She faked an innocent look, shrugged, and headed down the stairs. Every now and then, they'd all get together, in whoever's home was available. Last time it had been her's and Billy's, now it was Jill's. Maybe it was because life hadn't been normal for 6 years, but Rebecca never tired of it. Normal, or as normal as it could be, was actually rather strange still. she heard Billy coming down behind her, and continued to watch what was going on. Life was good at the moment, and she hoped it stayed that way.

------------------------------

Outside the house and across the street, and asian woman in a red dress sat on the curb, watching through the window. Ada kept an eye on them, just to make sure they stayed out of trouble, and didn't get in her way. That's what she told herself anyway. In reality she wanted to join them, but she couldn't. She still had things to do. She had approached Tyler, and had asked for his help, but he had refused. He was enjoying his "normal" life. He'd told her it was something she ought to try sometime. But she had smiled and shook her head. A quiet life wasn't for her. She wasn't one to settle down. 

There were still Umbrella bases around, and she was getting rid of them. Though not in such a way that the others would have left her alone. She was making sure that any viruses they had in the bases were released. But she didn't stick around to see the results. She made sure the self destruct was set to go off, and she got out without anyone every knowing she had been there. There were few left now. In a year she had destroyed 6 bases. That left 3 more to go. And those would be the hard ones to find. They were run by higher ups in the company. There was, or had been, a new person in charge. She had gotten rid of her weeks ago. Hadn't been hard. The tiny woman hadn't even been able to put up a fight.

She glanced back to the window, and saw Leon looking out at her. He had seen her several times before and it was always the same. He would nod at her if the others were around, and wave if they weren't, and she would do likewise., though never a word was said. Ada felt that was a good thing. The less that was said, the better. He nodded at her, and she did the same to him before standing, and walking off down the street. She was heading back to her headquaters. Just because Tyler hadn't wanted to help didn't mean she hadn't found a new team. Hopefully when she got back, they would have some information for her. If not, there was always tomorrow.

The end...or is it?


End file.
